'- 

~ 


"  HE  WOULD   NOT  TAKE  AN   UNFAIR  ADVANTAGE." 


See  page  24. 


THE  TRUE  STORY  OF 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


CALLED  THE   FATHER   OF  HIS  COUNTRY 


BY 

ELBRIDGE    S.    BROOKS 

H 

AUTHOR  OF  "THE  STORY  OF  OUR  WAR  WITH  SPAIN,"  "THE  AMERICAN  SOLDIER," 

"THE  AMERICAN  SAILOR,"  "THE  TRUE  STORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES," 

"THB  TRUE  STORY  OF  COLUMBUS,"  "  LINCOLN,"  "GRANT," 

"FRANKLIN,"  "LAFAYETTE,"  AND  MANY  OTHEKS. 


BOSTON 
LOTHROP,  LEE  &  SHEPARD  CO. 


COPYRIGHT,  1895, 

BY 
LOTHKOP  PUBLISHING  COMPANY. 


All  rights  reserved. 


PREFACE. 


As  the  second  in  the  series  of  "  Children's  Lives  of  Great  Men," 
following  the  life  of  Columbus,  the  discoverer,  comes  the  true  story  of 
George  Washington,  the  founder  of  the  country  which  to-day  calls 
him  its  father. 

America  has  had  no  greater,  no  nobler,  no  truer  man.  Every  land 
has  honored  him,  every  race  has  sung  his  praise.  As  the  years  go  by, 
his  real  worth  becomes  more  apparent  and  needs  none  of  the  over 
wrought  little  stories  that  have  so  long  been  told  to  boys  and  girls,  to 
strengthen  his  character  or  give  point  to  his<record.  The  true  story 
of  his  life  is  fine  enough  and  full  enough  to  interest,  to  inspire  and  to 
help,  without  adding  the  things  that  would  make  a  prig  of  the  boy 
and  a  god  of  the  man  who  was  always  a  truth-teller,  truth-liver,  and 
truth-doer,  both  as  boy  and  man. 

One  of  the  best  of  modern  Americans,  James  Russell  Lowell,  who 
was  born  on  the  same  day  of  the  month  as  Washington,  February 
twenty-second,  wrote,  shortly  before  his  death,  to  a  schoolgirl  whose 
class  proposed  noticing  his  own  birthday  :  "  Whatever  else  you  do 
on  the  twenty-second  of  February,  recollect,  first  of  all,  that  on  that 
day  a  really  great  man  was  born,  and  do  not  fail  to  warm  your  hearts 
with  the  memory  of  his  service,  and  to  brace  your  minds  with  the 
contemplation  of  his  character.  The  rest  of  us  must  wait  uncovered 
till  he  be  served." 

Which  is  a  good  text  for  those  boys  and  girls  who  may  be  led  to 
read  this  true  story  of  George  Washington.  The  name  of  Washing 
ton  is  one  which  America  will  ever  reverence,  and  one,  before  which, 
American  boys  and  girls  may  well  stand,  hats  off,  "  uncovered  "  in 
memory,  respect  and  love.  E.  S.  B. 


338008 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

A    BOY    OF    VIRGINIA,    AND    HOW    HE    GREW    UP  II 

CHAPTER   II. 

WHY    THE    BOY    WHO    WISHED    TO    BE    A    SAILOR    BECAME    A  SURVEYOR     .  .  2J 

CHAPTER   III. 

HOW    THE    SURVEYOR    BECAME    A    SOLDIER      .......  39 

CHAPTER  IV. 

COLONEL    WASHINGTON    OF    MOUNT    VERNON  ......  54 

CHAPTER   V. 

HOW    JOHN    ADAMS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    SAVED    THE    COUNTRY        ...  70 

CHAPTER  VI. 

HOW    GEORGE    WASHINGTON    LOST    AND    WON  ......  83 

CHAPTER  VII. 

HOW    ONE    MAN    DID    IT    ALL  .........  95 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

WHY    THE    GENERAL    LOST    HIS    TEMPER.  .......          Io8 

CHAPTER    IX. 

HOW    WASHINGTON    WISHED    TO    BE    A    FARMER    AND    COULDN'T       .  .  .  I2O 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER   X. 

THE    FIRST    AMERICAN    PRESIDENT  ....»..,  133 

CHAPTER  XI. 

HOW    WASHINGTON    SERVED    AS    PRESIDENT    THE    SECOND    TIME         ...  146 

CHAPTER   XII. 

HOW    THE    GENERAL    GOT    HIS    DISCHARGE     .......          l6l 

CHAPTER   XIII. 
WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND  GIRLS          .....»».        174 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE    STORY    WITHOUT    AN    END      .......  c  •  Ip2 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


"  He  would  not  take  an  unfair  advantage"  Frontis. 

A  Dutchman 12 

The  Sandstone  Cottage  at  Little  Brington 13 

Monument  on  the  site  of  Washington's  Birthplace         .........         15 

Children  of  Washington's  time 16 

Washington's  Boyhood  Home 17 

A  good  deal  of  a  boy 18 

In  the  Tobacco  Shop 20 

Going  to  the  "  Field  School  "         .............         21 

Preparing  for  a  "  rassle  " 22 

Mary,  the  Mother  of  Washington  .............24 

"  He  tamed  the  unbroken  colt,  killing  it  rather  than  let  it  master  him  " 25 

"  He  even  tried  on  a  'sailor  suit'  and  posed  before  his  friends"  .......         27 

Real  Estate  Dealers  of  the  olden  times 29 

Longing  for  home  ................31 

Dreaming  of  going  to  sea       ..............32 

The  boy  George's  handwriting  at  13 33 

Riding  off  to  Belvoir 34 

"  Land  surveying  has  its  risks  " 35 

Washington's  handwriting  at  17 37 

"They  faced  dangers  and  risks  and  hardships"     ..........40 

"  Better  than  medicine  "  42 

Young  Washington  at  Barbadoes 43 

France  in  possession 44 

Through  the  wilderness 46 

Washington  and  the  French  Commander 48 

Washington  in  Indian  dress .49 

George  Washington  and  Christopher  Gist 51 

At  Great  Meadows 53 

Bits  of  old  Williamsburg S6 

Braddock S8 

Braddock's  Headquarters  in  West  Virginia 59 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

On  the  march ...60 

The  Indian  allies  of  the  French  returning  home  after  Braddock  s  defeat      .        .        *        .        .  61 

Mrs.  Martha  Washington  of  Mount  Vernon 64 

The  old  capitol  at  Williamsburg 65 

Colonel  and  Mrs.  George  Washington  of  Mount  Vernon 67 

The  first  martyrs  for  liberty 72 

Carpenter's  Hall 73 

The  Flag  on  Bunker  Hill 75 

"  Did  they  stand  the  fire  ?  "  Washington  asked 78 

"  That  they  did,"  the  post-rider  cried 

Under  the  Elm  on  Cambridge  Common 

The  Old  Elm  at  Cambridge 

Medal  presented  to  Washington  by  Congress  after  the  evacuation  of  Boston       .... 

The  British  evacuating  Boston 

A  Hessian 

The  Comming  of  the  Hessians 

The  Last  Boat 

Independence  Hall  —  exterior  and  interior 89 

Washington  Crossing  the  Delaware 92 

George  Washington  —  Peale's  portrait 93 

Washington  at  Princeton .......96 

In  Camp  —  Washington  and  the  Fifer 97 

At  Valley  Forge 100 

A  Dash  at  Monmouth 102 

Carving  the  ham  at  Valley  Forge 103 

Bartholdi's  Statue  of  Lafayette 104 

Surrender  of  Cornvvallis         ..............  105 

One  of  the  French  soldiers 107 

"Mad  Anthony"  Wayne no 

The  General  loses  his  temper 113 

"  He  changed  their  passion  into  patience  " .116 

Washington's  farewell  to  his  officers .117 

Building  a  palisaded  town 122 

"  If  Gin'ral  Washington  says  it  is  best,  it  is  best  1  " 1 24 

A  group  of  great  Americans 125 

"  Washington's  the  only  man  to  be  President " 129 

Inkstand  from  which  Washington  signed  the  Constitution  ........  I3[ 

Washington's  Inauguration  Journey 135 

Federal  Hall  in  Wall  Street 138 

The  Inauguration  of  President  George  Washington 139 

In  Washington's  Day •••••.  144 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

"  The  world  sneered  or  applauded  " '45 

George  Washington  —  Stuart's  portrait '47 

Martha  Washington — Stuart's  portrait 

General  Arthur  St.  Clair X54 

The  Post-office  in  Washington's  Day 

Traveling  in  the  Western  Country J59 

Washington,  the  farmer 

Mount  Vernon  in  1800 3 

George  Washington — the  Rush  statue l64 

Drilling  recruits  for  the  war  with  France l67 

One  of  Washington's  recommendations  (West  Point) !°9 

"  A  resolution  of  sympathy  and  sorrow  " J7' 

The  tribute  of  the  Nations !73 

Some  of  the  ladies  of  Washington's  "  presidential  circle  " 17S 

The  College  of  William  and  Mary !77 

«  Jacky  "  and  "  Patty  "  Custis J79 

"  Nellie  "  Custis l82 

Nellie  Custis's  room  at  Mount  Vernon l83 

Nellie's  piano 

George  Washington  Parke  Custis l85 

The  portico  at  Mount  Vernon 

The  Washington  Family  at  Mount  Vernon l87 

President  Washington 

Washington  and  the  little  cockade  maker I9° 

The  great  white  Dome 

The  Tomb  of  Washington 

General  George  Washington  —  Faed's  painting X95 

Washington's  handwriting  as  a  man 

A  pen  portrait  of  Washington 

The  Washington  monument 

Washington  City 2or 

Ths  Seal  of  the  State  of  Washington 203 


THE   TRUE   STORY   OF 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 


CALLED   THE   FATHER   OF   HIS   COUNTRY. 


CHAPTER  I. 


A  BOY  OF  VIRGINIA,  AND  HOW  HE  GREW  UP. 

t 

T  WISH  to  write  for  young 
-*•  Americans  the  story  of  their 
noblest  man.  His  name  was 
George  Washington.  OH^g-mTfr 

dnexL_and sixty  years    and  more 

ago  he  was  a  helpless  baby  in  a 
pleasant  Virginia  home.  That  home  was  a  lo\v-roofed,  big- 
beamed,  comfortable-looking  old  farmhouse  on  a  hill  that 
sloped  down  to  the  Potomac,  the  beautiful  river  that  sep 
arates  the  present  States  of  Virginia  and  Maryland.  One  ""*  7"* 
hunckod  and  srsty  ye*ps  ago  there  were  no  States  in  America. 
All  the  land,  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  belonged  to  England. 
King  George  the  Second  was  its  owner  and  master,  and  the 
thirteen  colonies  into  which  it  was  divided  were  ruled  by  men 


12  A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,  AND  HOW  HE    GREW  UP. 

sent   over  from  England  by  King  George,  and  called  royal 
governors. 

The  people  who  lived  in  these  colonies  were  mostly  En 
glishmen  or  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Englishmen,  except 
a  few  thousand  Dutchmen  in  the  colony  of  New  York,  who 
had  been  conquered  by  the  English  many  years  before,  and 
were  gradually  becoming  English  in  manners 
and  speech. 

The  old  farmhouse  of  which   I  speak  over 
looked  the  Potomac  River,  and  the   plantation 
to  which  it  belonged  was  called  Bridge's  Creek, 
because,  there,  a    little   stream    of    that    name 
flowed  into   the    Potomac.      All    about  it  was 
farm-land  or  forest.     There  were  then  but  few       A  CUTCHMAN- 
cities  in  America.     New  York  and  Boston  and   Philadelphia 
were  the  largest  and  almost  the  only  real  cities,  and   they 

were  small  enough  when  compared  with  the  cities  of  to-day. 
Y " 
-/,    The   colony  of  Virginia,   however,  was   the   richest  and 

most  populous  of  all  the  thirteen  English  colonies  along  the 
Atlantic.  Its  people  were  farmers ;  the  richer  ones  owned 
great  farms  or  plantations  upon  which  they  raised  tobacco 
for  the  English  market.  The  plantation  of  Augustine 
Washington  at  Bridge's  Creek  on  the  Potomac,  was  one  of 
the  large  ones;  it  was  in  Westmoreland  County,  on  the 
Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac,  and  not  many  miles  from  where 
the  river  empties  into  the  Chesapeake  Bay;  [the  Washington 
plantation  contained  a  thousand  acres,  and  stretched  along 


A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE    GREW   UP.  13 

I 

the  Potomac  for  fully  a  mile.;  The  old  house  in  which 
Augustine  Washington  and  his  wife  Mary  lived  was  built 
years  before  by  his  grandfather,  the  first  of  the  Washingtons 
who  came  to  Americay  It  is  said  that  the  Washingtons 
came  originally  from  a  thatch- roofed  sandstone  house  in  the 


\     -^ 


THE   SANDSTONE   COTTAGE   AT   LITTLE   BRINGTON. 
(Said  to  have  been  the  English  home  of  Washington's  grandfather. ) 

English  village  of  Little  Brington  ;  but  this  is  not  clearly 
proved.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  Grandfather  John 
Washington  came  to  Virginia  in  1657  an^  built  the  house 
on  Bridge's  Creek.  It  was  not  a  mansion.  It  was  a  plain, 
old-style  Southern  farmhouse,  with  steep,  sloping  roof  and 


i4  A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE    GREM'    UP. 

projecting  eaves,  with  a  broad  piazza  in  front,  a  great  chim 
ney  at  either  end,  and  just  such  a  big,  delightful  attic  as  boys 
and  girls  love  to  play  in,  on  days  when  the  wind  blows  and 
whistles  without,  or  the  rain  pours  and  patters  on  the  roof. 
It  was  to  this  old  Virginia  farm-house  that  Augustine 

o  o 

Washington,  in  the  year  1730,  brought  home  his  second  wife, 
Mary  Ball,  of  Lancaster  County,  Virginia;  but  whom,  so  it  is 
said,  he  met  and  married  in  England.  In  the  old  house 
were  two  boys  of  seven  and  nine  years ;  they  were  Lawrence 
and  Augustine  ;  their  mother,  their  father's  first  wife,  had 
been  dead  nearly  two  years,  but  their  new  mother  became  al 
most  like  an  own  mother  to  them. 

In  this  old  farmhouse  at  Bridge's  Creek,  the  eldest  son  of 
Augustine  and  Mary  Washington  was  born  on  the  twenty- 
second  of  February,  1732.  They  named  him  George. 
What  with  his  two  half-brothers,  Lawrence  and  Augustine, 
and  his  own  brothers  and  sisters  who  were  born  after  him, 
George  Washington  had  plenty  of  company  in  his  home. 
He  never  remembered  the  house  in  which  he  was  born,  how 
ever;  for  in  1735  some  sparks  from  a  bonfire  set  it  in  flames 
and  it  was  burned  to  the  ground. 

Not  a  stick  nor  a  stone  of  that  old  house  remains  to-day; 
but  it  has  been  a  famous  spot  for  many  a  year.  In  1815, 
a  memorial  stone  was  placed  on  the  spot  where  the  house 
once  stood,  and  on  the  stone  were  these  wrords : 

Here,  on  tJie  eleventh  of  February,  1732,  George  Wash 
ington  was  born. 


A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE   GREW   UP. 


What  is  called  the  "  old  style  "  of  reckoning  time  was 
used  in  those  days,  and  the  eleventh  of  February  was  in 
1 732,  the  same  as  the  twenty-second  of  February  to  us ; 
therefore,  under  our  modern  way  of  reckoning  time  the 
birthday  of  George  Washington 
was  the  twenty-second  of  Febru 
ary  -  -  the  day  that  we  celebrate 
as  a  National  holiday. 

When  his  house  at  Bridge's 
Creek  was  thus  destroyed,  Au 
gustine  Washington  moved  into 
another  farmhouse  that  belonged 
to  him  on  another  plantation,  fur 
ther  up  the  Potomac.  This  plan 
tation  was  in  Stafford  County, 
and  did  not  border  on  the  Poto 
mac  River,  but  was  on  the  banks 
of  the  Rappahannock,  nearly  op 
posite  the  little  town  of  Freder- 
icksburg. 

This  house  was  very  much 
like  the  one  that  was  burned.  It 

MONUMENT   ON   THE   SITE   OF   WASHING 

stood    back    from  the  river,  on  a  TON'S  KIRTHPLACE. 

(By  permission  of  John  Crawford  &*  Son, 


ridge  or  bluff  that  overlooked  the 


Designers. ) 


Rappahannock,  and  between  the  house  and  the  river  was 
a  stretch  of  meadow  that  was  the  playground  of  the 
Washington  children.  For  in  this  pleasant  old  Virginia 


i6 


A   BOY  OF     VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE    GREW   UP. 


country  home  George  Washington  lived  until  he  was  sixteen 
years  old.  As  with  the  birthplace  of  Washington,  so  it 
was  with  the  home  of  his  boyhood.  ,  It  was  long  since 
destroyed,  and  nothing  marks  the  spot  where,  as  a  boy,  he 
who  was  to  be  the  "  Father  of  his  Country  "lived  and  played 
and  dreamed  and  thought  and  grew.  It  would  Jpe  pleasant 
to  know  more  about  his  boyhood 
days,  for  it  is  always  interesting 
to  know  what  sort  of  a  "  bringing 
up  "  a  great  man  had  when  a 
boy.  But  there  is,  really,  very 
little  known  about  the  boy 
hood  of  George 

T  A  7  1     ' 

Washington. 

His  father 
was  what  we 
should  call  a 
"  well-to-do  "  far 
mer.  He  owned 
several  large 

farms,  or  plantations,  as  they  were  then  called,  in  the  colony 
of  Virginia,  along  the  Potomac  River.  He  never  had  much 
money,  for  money  was  not  plentiful  in  those  "  old  colony 
days."  Planters  and  farmers  were  rich  in  land  and  in  the 
crops  they  raised,  but  these  crops  were  not  always  sold  for 
money;  they  were  exchanged  for  the  things  that  were 
needed  on  the  farm  or  in  the  home.  The  Virginia  farmers, 


CHILDREN    OF  WASHINGTON'S  TIME. 


A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE    GREW   UP.  17 

as  I  have  told  you,  raised  more  tobacco  than  anything 
else;  for  a  great  many  folks  in  Europe  had  learned  to 
smoke  tobacco  since  the  time  when  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  (who 
introduced  into  England  the  practice  of  smoking  tobacco)  was 
drenched  from  head  to  foot  by  his  terrified  servant  who,  see 
ing  the  tobacco  smoke,  thought  his  master  was  on  fire.  So 
the  rich  Virginia  farmlands  were  planted  with  tobacco,  and 
the  ships  that  came  from  England  took  away  the  tobacco, 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYHOOD  HOME. 


and  left  in  exchange  things  to  eat  and  things  to   wear,  and 
things  to  make  home  comfortable. 

/  And  a  very  comfortaWe  home  the  son  of  this  Virginia 
planter  had.  It  was  not  a  great  nor  a  grand  house,  as  were 
a  few  of  the  houses  of  the  very  richest  Virginians ;  it  was 
not,  perhaps,  what  the  boys  and  girls  of  to-day,  with  to-day's 
idea  of  comfort,  would  call  comfortable.  It  was  a  story  and 
a  half  house,  with  a  low  sloping  roof,  with  great  chimneys 
and  fireplaces  at  either  end,  and  with  half  a  dozen  "  roomy  ' 
rooms,  one  of  which  had  its  fireplace  bordered  with  the 


i8 


A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND   HO IV  HE    GREW   UP. 


funny  Dutch  tiles  and  was  called  the  "  best  room."  There 
were  no  carpets  on  the  floors,  no  gas,  nor  oil,  nor  coal,  nor 
stoves  for  light  and  heat;  the  furniture  was  neither  elabo 
rate  nor  plenty ;  the  books  were  but  few,  and  the  household 
games  and  toys  made  for  girls  and  boys  to-day  were  then 
unknown.  No  bicycles,  no  postage  stamp 
albums,  no  tennis  nor  croquet,  nor  baseball 
-what  could  the  "sons  of  gentlemen"  find 
to  do  when  Washington  was  a  boy  ? 

Well  —  they  had  plenty  to  eat  and  drink  ; 
there  were  horses  to  ride  and  guns  to  shoot 
with  and  dogs  to  hunt  with ;  there  were  fish 
to  be  caught  and  out-of-door  games  to  be 
played,  and  the  boys  were  just  as  full  of  fun 
and  just  as  ready  to  play  as  they  are  to-day^J 

The  Washingtons,  as  I  have  told  you, 
were  considered  "  well  off,"  although  they  had 
not  much  money  to  spend  and  did  not  live  in 
a  grand  house  ;  so  the  sons  of  the  smaller 
planters,  the  boy  who  belonged  to  what  was  known  as  the 
"  poor  white  families,"  and  the  little  black  and  wrhite  servant- 
boys —  for  there  were  both  kinds  in  Virginia  then --looked 
upon  George  Washington  as  a  good  deal  of  a  boy,  and  fol 
lowed  him  as  their  leader  in  their  out-of-door  sports  and 
games. 

When  he  was  a  little  fellow,  eight  or  nine  years  old,  he 
had    a   pony  named   Hero,  that  "  Uncle    Ben,"  one  of    his 


A   GOOD   DEAL   OF   A 
BOY. 


A   BOY  OF    VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE    GREW   UP.  19 

father's  slaves,  taught  him  to  ride;  and  he  owned  a  "whip- 
top,"  something  rare  in  those  days.  And  this  he  considered 
so  fine  a  possession  that  he  wrote  about  it  to  his  friend 
Dickey  Lee  (afterwards  a  famous  American),  and  generously 
told  him,  "  You  may  see  it  and  whip  it."  But,  best  of  all, 
he  liked  the  free  life  out  of  doors,  the  rough-and-ready  boy 
play  that  gives  health  and  strength  and  vigor  and  muscle  to 
boys,  and  fits  them  to  become  robust  and  active  men. 

When  he  was  eleven  years  old,  in  April,  174^.  his  father 
died  suddenly,  and  Mary  Washington  had  the  management 
of  the  great  plantation  and  the  houseful  of  children.  How 
well  she  succeeded  we  all  know ;  for,  to-day,  George  Washing 
ton's  mother  is  almost  as  famous  as  her  son.  One  of  the 
older  boys -- George's  half-brother  Lawrence -- had  been 
sent  to  England  to  school;  but,  when  his  father  died,  there 
was  scarcely  money  enough  to  do  this  for  the  other  boys ;  so 
George  got  what  small  schooling  he  obtained  in  the  simple 
country  schools  about  his  home,  where  he  learned  little  more 
than  what  was  called  "  the  three  R's  "  -reading,  'riting  and 
'rithmetic. 

So  he  grew  up  at  home  a  brave,  generous,  quiet,  manly 
boy.  He  loved  to  roam  the  fields  and  row  and  swim  in  the 
rivers,  and  talk  with  the  other  boys  as  to  what  he  should  like 
to  do  or  be  when  he  gre\v  up.  For  the  Virginia  boy  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  there  were  great  attractions  - 
dangers  are  always  attractive-- the  sea  and  the  forest. 
[George  Washington,  going  down  to  the  tobacco  sheds  on 


20 


A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND  HOW  HE    GREW   UP. 


the  wharf  which  was  a  part  of  every  plantation,  would  talk 
with  the  men  who  had  sailed  across  the  sea  from  England, 
and  listen  to  their  hair-breadth  escapes  from  wreck  and 
pirates  (for  there  were  fierce  pirates  sailing  the  seas  in  those 
days)  and  he  would  think  he  would  like  to  be  a  sailor}  then 


IN    THE   TOBACCO    SHED. 


at  other  times  he  would  talk  with  the  hunters  who  came  in 
with  the  "peltry,"  about  the  great  forests  that  stretched 
away,  no  one  knew  how  far  to  the  westward,  and  that  were 
believed  by  the  boys  to  be  full  of  all  kinds  of  dangers  and 
all  sorts  of  ferocious  monsters,  and  then  he  would  think  he 
would  like  to  be  a  hunter. 


A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE    GREW    UP. 

t 


21 


But  after  all  I  imagine  he  was  ready,  just  then,  to  agree 
that  it  was  not  a  bad  thing  to  be  a  boy  on  a  big  Virginia 
plantation  with  plenty  of  servants  and  horses  and  dogs  and 
boy  comrades,  and  with  a  watchful  mother  whom,  if  he  had 
to  obey  strictly,  he  loved  dearly. 

I  He  was  strong,  he   was  active,  he  was  healthy,  he  was 


GOING    TO   THE    "FIELD    SCHOOL 


happy  —  big  for  his  years,  strong,  for  a  boy,  the  best  wrestler 
("  rassler,"  they  all  called  it  then),  the  best  runner,  the  best 
rider  among  all  the  boys  of  his  section.  He  grew  to  be 
what  are  called  in  these  days  an  athlete.  Not  a  boy  could 
"  stump  him  "  successfully  or  unsuccessfully,  or  "  dare  him  " 
to  any  feat  of  boyish  strength  or  skill.  He  studied  faith 
fully  --  he  always  did  everything  thoroughly -- but  he  did 


22 


A   BOY  OF   VIRGINIA,   AND   HOW  HE    GREW   UP. 


not  really  enjoy  his  schools.  What  he  did  enjoy  when  he 
went  to  the  little  log  school-house  (called  a  "  field  school  ") 
near  his  home,  was  his  corn-stalk  brigade.  For  William 
Bustle  and  some  of  the  schoolboys  played  they  were  French 
while  George  Washington  and  other  of  the 
schoolboys  played  they  were  Americans, 
and  with  cornstalks  for  guns  and  gourds  for 
drums,  the  rival  soldiers  played  at  charge  and 
skirmish  and  furious  battle,  and  the  Ameri 
cans,  led  by  Captain  Washington,  were 
always  victorious.] 

With  such  a  father  and  mother  George 
Washington  could  not  have  been  other  than 
a  good  boy.  And  he  was.  He  was  big  and 
strong,  and  sometimes  mischievous  and  care 
less  -  -fearing  nothing  and  daring  much,  as 
such  big,  good-natured,  quiet  and  determined 
boys  are  apt  to ;  but  he  hated  a  lie ;  he  was 
never  mean,  nor  low  ;  he  never  did  an  under 
hand  action ;  and  he  knew  that  the  first  lesson  a  boy  needs  to 
learn  is  obedience  to  parents,  respect  toward  older  people, 
and  kindness  to  all. 

Some  folks  will  tell  you  that  Washington  had  no  boy 
hood;  that  is  to  say,  he  was  not  one  of  those  fun-loving,  fun- 
making  boys  we  all  like  to  know.  But  I  wish  you  to  believe 
otherwise.  I  wish  you  to  feel  that  George  Washington, 
as  a  boy,  though  quiet  and  thoughtful,  was  just  as  fond  of 


PREPARING    FOR   A 
"  RASSLE. " 


WHY  THE   BOY  BECAME   A    SURVEYOR.  23 

fun  and  of  sport,  just  as  careless,  reckless,  and  boisterous, 
just  as  high-strung  and  as  boyish  a  boy  as  are  any  of  you 
who  read  his  story,  and  who,  in  the  schools  and  homes  of 
America  to-day  are,  because  of  this  Virginia  boy  of  long 
ago,  learning,  hoping  and  meaning  to  be  loyal,  true  and 
helpful  American  men  and  women  when  you  grow  up. 


CHAPTER    II. 

W HY    THE    BOY    WHO    WISHED    TO    BE    A    SAILOR 
BECAME    A    SURVEYOR. 

•VERYBODY  likes  a  boy  who  is  strong  and  manly, 
and  that  was  what  George  Washington  was.  The 
boy  who,  while  in  his  early  teens,  could  tame  an 
unbroken  colt,  firmly  keeping  his  seat  until  he  had  mastered 
the  wild  and  plunging  thoroughbred,  the  boy  who  could 
"  down  "  the  best  wrestlers  in  the  county,  who  could  throw  a 
stone  clear  across  the  Rappahannock,  toss  bars  and  pitch 
quoits  better  than  any  man  or  boy  about  him,  and  sight 
and  fire  a  rifle  held  with  one  hand  only ;  the  boy  who  could 
always  be  trusted  to  keep  his  promises,  tell  the  truth,  and 
do  as  he  was  bid  without  asking  why,  was  a  boy  who  could 
be  at  once  bold  and  brave,  good  and  gentle,  sturdy  and 
strong,  wise  and  cautious. 


WHY  THE  BOY  BECAME  A    SURVEYOR. 


If  he  tamed  the  unbroken  colt,  killing  it  rather  than  let 
it  master  him,  he  did  not  excuse  himself  nor  lie  about  it  to 
his  mother  when  the  trial  of  will  was  past.  And,  if  he  mas 
tered  the  thoroughbred,  (as  he  once  did  in  a  wager  of  his 
head  against  the  horse)  he  would  not  take  an  unfair  advan 
tage,  nor  accept  the  horse  as  his  because  he  had  neither  kept 

his  seat  nor  fully  kept  his  claim 
of  ability. 

He  would  get  dreadfully 
"mad"  with  other  boys  some 
times,  and  he  was  so  strong  that 
if  he  had  been  at  all  bad,  he 
might  have  been  what  is  called 
a  bully.  But,  even  when  he  was 
a  small  boy,  he  had  learned  to 
control  his  temper ;  and  this  he 
always  did  throughout  his  useful 
life,  losing  it  so  seldom  and  only 
when  there  was  every  excuse  for 
his  getting  "  mad,"  that  we  can 
set  this  splendid  habit  of  self- 
control  as  one  of  the  things  that 
made  him  great  and  noble. 

But  as  he  got  into  his  teens  and  began  to  think  for 
himself,  he  felt  that  he  must  soon  decide  upon  what  he  was 
to  do  for  himself  so  as  to  take  some  of  the  burden  from 
his  mother's  shoulders.  Mary  Washington  had  a  great 


MARY   THE    MOTHER    OF    GEORGE 
WASHINGTON. 


"HE   TAMEU   THE   UNBROKEN   COLT,   KILLING   IT   RATHER  THEN    LET   IT   MASTER   HIM. 


WHY  THE  BOY  BECAME   A   SURTEYOR. 


27 


plantation  to  look  after  and  not  enough  money  to  do  the 
things  she  wished.  She  saw  this  big,  spirited,  ambitious,  de 
termined  son  of  hers  growing  up  in  her  home,  and  she  won 
dered  what  she  could  do  for  him  and  with  him,  to  make  him. 
a  capable  and  successful  man,  who,  by  helping  himself, 
should  help  her. 

The  boy  thought  of  the  same  thing,  too.     He  really  could 


"  HE    EVEN    TRtED    ON    A    '  SAILOR    SUIT  '  AND    POSED    BEFORE    HIS    FRIENDS." 

not  tell  what  he  wanted  to  do,  for  not  many  boys  of  four 
teen  are  ready  to  know  what  they  are  best  fitted  for.  From 
being  much  along  the  river,  however,  when  the  busy  to 
bacco  ships  sailed  into  the  harbors  and  along  from  wharf  to 


28  WHY  THE   BOY  BECAME   A   SURVEYOR. 

wharf,  or  slipped  down  with  the  current  to  the  broad  bay 
and  the  wide  ocean  beyondFGeorge  Washington  soon  grew 
to  have  that  desire  for  travel  and  adventure  that  comes  to 
many  a  brave  boy,  and  so  he  concluded  that  he  should  like 
to  be  a  sailor,  even  if  he  had  to  go  "  before  the  mast,"  on 
one  of  the  tobacco  ships.  /  He  talked  with  his  older  brothers 
and  with  his  big-boy  friends  about  it.  He  even  tried  on  a 
"  sailor  suit  "  and  posed  before  his  friends.  They  all  thought 
it  might  be  a  good  thing  for  him,  and  said  that  some  day  he 
might  rise  to  be  a  mate  or  perhaps  a  captain.  ([There  is  lots 
of  risk  about  going  to  sea,  they  said.  (  Vessels  get  wrecked 
and  pirates  sometimes  capture  them,  and  there  is  a  chance 
that  the  bold  sailor  boy  may  be  drowned  or  have  to  walk  the 
plank.  But  then,  too,  there  is  plenty  of  promise  in  a  sailor's 
life  for  so  plucky  a  young  fellow  as  George  Washington, 
and  even  if  he  does  start  in  as  a  sailor  on  a  tobacco  ship,  he 
may  some  day  get  a  berth  in  a  man-of-war  and  wear  the 
king's  uniform  in  the  king's  navy. 

All  this  only  made  George  Washington  the  more  anx 
ious  to  go  to  sea.  He  talked  it  over  with  his  mother  and, 
although  she  greatly  disliked  the  idea  of  her  son  being  a 
sailor,  still  she  was  so  impressed  with  the  boy's  desire  to  do 
something,  and  to  be  somebody,  and  to  go  somewhere  "  on 
his  own  hook,"  that  she  was  just  on  the  point  of  saying  yes 
to  his  pleadings  when  something  happened  to  make  her 
say  no.?^ 

This  was    the   receipt   of  a  letter    from   her  brother  in 


<s 

Jii^  *>«fiF@*^sa&al 


WHY  THE   BOY  BECAME   A    SURVEYOR. 


r-r>V 

LONGING    FOR    HOME. 


England,  to  whom  she  had  written  about  her  son  George 
and  his  desire  to  ship  as  a  sailor  on  one  of  the  tobacco-carry 
ing  vessels  that  sailed  between  the  Potomac  wharves  and 
English  ports.  "  Do  not  let  him  go  to  sea,"  the  letter  said. 
"  Make  a  tinker  or  a  tailor  of  him,  or  anything  that  will  keep 
him  on  shore,  rather  than  see  him  sail  away  from  you  as  a  /?  • 

sailor  before  the  mast.  A  sailor 
on  one  of  these  trading  vessels 
is  worse  off  than  one  of  your 
negro  slaves.  He  has  not  a  mo 
ment  he  can  call  his  own  ;  he  is 
kicked  and  cuffed  and  robbed 
and  beaten  ;  not  a  dog  but  has 
an  easier  life.  If  he  hopes  to 

get  into  the  king's  navy,  the  chances  are  small  for  he 
knows  no  one  who  could  get  him  a  berth,  and  there  are 
hundreds  of  boys  waiting  to  get  in  who  have  a  better 
chance  than  he.  And  suppose  he  should  stick  to  his  trad 
ing  life  and  get  to  be  captain  of  a  tobacco  ship  --why,  any 
small  planter  in  Virginia  is  better  off  than  one  of  these  ship 
masters.  Tell  the  boy  not  to  be  in  too  great  a  hurry  to  get 
rich.  Tell  him  to  take  things  easily,  to  be  patient  and  care 
ful,  and  he  will  be  much  better  off  in  the  end  than  if  he 
should  go  to  sea." 

This  letter  settled  the  question.  Mrs.  Washington  de 
cided  against  the  sea-fever,  and  though  she  knew  her  son 
was  a  manly  and  adventurous  boy,  she  felt  that  there  were 


32  WHY  THE   BOY  BECAME   A    SURVEYOR. 

just  as  good  chances  for  him  to  get  a  footing  and  make  his 
way  on  shore  as  on  sea. 

So  the  lad  gave  up  his  dream  of  the  free  life  on  blue 
water  that  had  so  long  filled  his  thoughts.  It  was  enough 
for  him  that  his  mother  said  no,  even  though  he  wished  so 
much  for  her  yes.  He  never  thought  of  acting  contrary  to 
her  decision  or  counsel ;  and  when  he  grew  to  be  a  man  and 

was  making  a  name 
for  himself,  Mary 
Washington's  opin 
ion  of  her  son  was 
more  to  him  than 
all  the  big  words  of 
the  world.  "  George 
has  been  a  good  boy,"  she  said,  "  and  I  am  sure  he  will  do 
his  duty." 

Back  to  school  went  the  boy  who  had  longed  to  be  a 
sajjjor.  Near  his  birthplace~~at  B*44ge's  Cieek,  where  his 
half-brother  Augustine  had  built  himself  a  house,  there  was 
a  fairly  good  school  kept  by  a  Mr.  Williams  ;  and  to  him  the 
boy  was  sent. 

/  George  Washington  was  always  good  at  figures.  He 
was  correct  and  careful  over  them  ,  and  promised  to  became 
what  is  called  a  good  mathematician.  Mr.  Williams  taught 
him  surveying.  That,  you  know7,  is  the  science  of  measur 
ing  land  so  that  the  owner  can  know  just  how  much  he 
owns,  just  how  it  lies,  and  just  where  its  boundary  lines  run. 


DREAMING    OF   GOING   TO    SEA. 


WHY  THE  BOY  BECAME  A   SURVEYOR.  33 

For  when  he  knows  that,  he  can  cut  it  up  into  tracts  or  lots 
of  given  sizes,  and  set  all  the  measurements  down  on  paper 
in  lines  and  figures. 

This  is  a  very  important  work,  especially  in  a  new  coun 
try,  where  people  own  large  tracts  of  land,  and  other  people, 
coming  there  to  live,  wish  to  buy  new  tracts  or  purchase  parts 
of  old  ones.  It  requires  a  clear  head,  a  good  eye,  and  quick 
ness  and  correctness  at  figures.  All  these,  George  Wash 
ington  had.  /  He  was  fourteen  years  old  when  he  gave  up 
going  to  sea  and  went  to  study  mathematics  and  surveying 

under     Mr.     Williams. 

^  •      "i  i  >WL  1 J  J  *i*t  igW^rfTr^ 

M/        /imX^ivf  +  s  When    he    was    nearly 

*//ba.icn>  &      V^L.-^/^ 

sixteen,  in   the  autumn 

of   1747,  he  left   school 
A  /  and    went   to  visit    his 

half-brother,    Lawrence 

THE  BOY  GEORGE'S  HANDWRITING  AT  13. 

Washington,  at  his  new 
home    on  the  Potomac,  which  he  called  Mount  Vernon. 

Lawrence  Washington  was  nearly  twelve  years  older  than 
his  half-brother  George,  but  he  loved  the  boy  and  was  always 
trying  to  help  him  along.  Lawrence,  as  I  told  you,  was  sent 
to  school  in  England;  he  had  gone  to  the  wars  with  the 
squadron  of  the  gallant  admiral  Vernon,  and  had  fought 
under  that  brave  leader  at  Porto  Bello  and  Carthagena,  where 
the  Spaniards  were  whipped,  but  where  so  many  brave 
American  soldiers  and  sailors  died  of  fever  and  pestilence. 
After  the  wars  were  over,  Lawrence  Washington  came  back 


34 


WHY  THE  BOY  BECAME   A    SURVEYOR- 


to  Virginia,  married  Miss  Fairfax,  and  settling  on  the  Poto 
mac  plantation  his  father  had  left  him,  built  a  house  and 
called  his  place  Mount  Vernon,  naming  it  for  the  gallant  ad 
miral  with  whom  he  had  gone  to  the  West  Indies  to  fight 
the  Spaniards. 

Near  to  Mount  Vernon  was  a  plantation  of  the  Fairfaxes 

called  Belvoir.  George 
Washington  used  to  ride 
over  to  Belvoir  to  see 
George  Fairfax,  who  was 
a  few  years  older  than 
himself,  and  there  he  met 
a  man  who  had  much  to 
do  with  starting  him  out 
in  life..  This  was  a  queer 
and  odd  old  English 
nobleman,  Thomas,  the 
sixth  Lord  Fairfax.  He 
was  a  descendant  of  that 
great  Lord  Fairfax  who 
had  foueht  with  Crom- 


RIDING    OFF   TO    BELVOIR. 


well  against  the  first  King 
Charles,  and  helped  the  second  King  Charles  to  get  his 
crown  again.  This  Lord  Fairfax  whom  George  Washington 
knew  had,  at  one  time,  lived  in  the  highest  society  in  En 
gland.  He  was  a  scholar,  a  writer,  a  soldier  and  a  fine 
gentleman;  he  was  very  rich  and  very  high  and  mighty 


m^??w$m% 

I  ,      \'~!  '   '   -  '  \  •••  :  '•      I'-      \  •  •:        -1  -  ••',  -'  -  */-'t'^'.-"-      ' 

;V.--.\..  •-..•:;•  ••  Nffij^/^.----::; 


"LAND  SURVEYING  HAS  ITS  RISKS." 


WHY  THE  BOY  BECAME  A   SURVEYOR.  37 

at  home,  but,  because  the  girl  he  was  to  marry  suddenly 
decided  to  marry  some  one  else,  Lord  Fairfax  "got  mad" 
(as  great  Lords  and  small  boys  will  some  times,  you  know). 
He  left  England  forever  and  sailed  across  the  sea  to  America, 
where  he  owned  acres  upon  acres  of  land  among  the  Virginia 
mountains.  This  great  tract  of  country  had  been  given  by 
King  Charles  the  second  to  Lord  Fairfax's  grandfather. 
And  when  this  Lord  Fairfax  found  out  what  a  fine  country 
Virginia  was,  and  how  rich  the  land  was,  he  determined  to 
live  there  and  improve  his  property. 

People  had  been  going  upon  his  lands  without  leave  and 
settling  upon  it  --"  squatters,"  they  were  called --and  Lord 
Fairfax  found  that  he  needed  some  one  who  was  bright  and 
bold  and  strong,  who  could  go  all  over  his  great  possessions 
(which  included  nearly  one-fifth  of  the  present  State  of  Vir 
ginia),  determine  their  boundaries,  mark  down  the  pieces 
that  the  squatters  had  taken  possession  of,  and  get  every 
thing  ready  toward  what  ^, 

VO^?2W7 

we  call,  to-day,  "  develop-     /        / 
ing  "  the  property. 

Lord     Fairfax     met  / 

WASHINGTON'S  HANDWRITING  AT  17. 

George   Washington    at 

Belvoirand  Mount  Vernon.  He  talked  with  the  young  man, 
rode  with  him,  hunted  with  him,  took  a  fancy  to  him,  and,  dis 
covering  that  he  was  a  correct  and  reliable  land-surveyor, 
asked  him  to  "  take  the  job  "•  of  going  all  over  the  Fairfax 
possessions  in  the  beautiful  Shenandoah  Valley  and  among 


38  WHY  THE  BOY  BECAME   A   SURVEYOR. 

the  Virginia  Mountains.  "  Locate  the  land,"  he  said,  "  survey 
it,  settle  its  boundaries,  note  down  the  roads  and  highways  and 
report  to  me  about  the  people  who  have  settled  themselves 
on  my  land  without  leave,  and  who  must  be  either  driven 
off,  or  satisfactorily  arranged  with.  And  you  may  have 
plenty  of  adventures,  too.  Land  surveying  has  quite  as 
many  risks  as  a  sailor's  life." 

It  was  a  splendid  opportunity  for  the  sixteen-year-old 
boy.  It  was  just  the  start  in  life  he  needed,  for  it  was  just 
what  he  understood,  just  what  he  could  do,  and  just  what 
he  liked.  It  would  make  a  man  of  him.  And  it  did. 

So,  at  sixteen,  he  became  a  land-surveyor.  He  was  a 
handsome  young  fellow,  almost  six  feet  tall,  well-shaped 
though  a  little  lean,  long-armed,  strong  and  muscular.  He 
had  light-brown  hair,  grayish-blue  eyes,  a  firm  mouth,  a 
frank  and  manly  face  and  he  had  a  way  about  him  that 
made  people  like  him,  though  he  was  so  quiet  and  retiring, 
while  there  was  a  look  on  his  face  that  made  them  obey  him 
if  he  was  in  a  position  to  counsel  or  direct. 

•Even  as  a  boy,  you  see,  George  Washington  had  what 
\ve  call  the  qualities  of  mind  and  brain,  the  courage,  the  cau 
tion  and  the  determination  to  succeed  that  made  him,  in 
after  years,  a  leader  of  men  and  the  chieftain  of  America. 


HOW  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME   A   SOLDIER. 


39 


CHAPTER    III. 


HOW    THE    SURVEYOR    BECAME    A    SOLDIER. 


I 


S  there  any  boy  who   does    not    enjoy  life 
out-of-doors,    especially    if  he    is    strong, 
healthy,  active,  adventurous  and  observing? 

George  Washington  and  George  Fairfax 
started  out  on  their  surveying  expedition  in 
high  spirits,  ready  to  face  the  hard  work  and 
the  rough  life  they  knew  lay  before  them, 
prepared  to  take  things  as  they  came  and  make  the  best  of 
everything.  That  is  the  only  way  for  any  boy  to  "  tackle  "  a 
piece  of  work  successfully ;  for  fretting  makes  work  all  the 
harder  and  brings  no  enjoyment  out  of  life.  And  George 
Washington  never  fretted. 

The  boys  were  out  among  the  hills  with  the  compass 
and  the  chain  for  five  weeks,  during  the  months  of  March  and 
April,  1748.  That  is  the  time  of  year  when  Virginia  streams 
are  swollen  and  Virginia  mud  is  plenty.  The  young  fellows 
were  often  hungry,  often  wet,  often  cold  and  uncomfortable ; 
they  slept  in  flapping  tents  and  smoky  cabins ;  they  faced 
dangers  and  risks  and  hardships  ;  but  none  of  these  things 
worried  them.  They  met  with  trappers  and  tramps  and  In- 


40  HO IV  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME   A   SOLDIER. 

dians ;  they  worked  and  hunted  and  fished  ;  they  climbed 
mountains,  forded  rivers  and  .made  their  way  along  roads 
that  were  "  execrable  "  and  trails  that  were  uncertain.  But 
they  were  healthy,  hearty,  manly  boys  and  they  had  "  such 
a  good  time  "  that,  when  they  returned  to  the  settlements, 
George  Washington  was  quite  ready  to  try  it  gain. 


"THEY  FACED  DANGERS  AND  RISKS  AND  HARDSHIPS." 

He  did  his  work  as  a  surveyor  so  well  and  brought  back 
such  excellent  results  of  his  five  weeks'  trip  that  Lord  Fair 
fax  felt  that  the  boy-surveyor  had  been  a  credit  to  him.  He 
not  only  gave  the  lad  more  work  of  the  same  sort,  but  he  so 
influenced  the  royal  governor  of  Virginia,  who  had  the  "  say  " 


HOW  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME   A    SOLDIER.  41 

in.  all  such  matters,  that  young  George  Washington  was  ap 
pointed  as  one  of  the  "  public  surveyors  "  of  the  colony. 

This  gave  him  plenty  to  do.  For  the  next  three  years 
he  was  kept  busy  laying  out  tracts  of  land  in  the  Shenan- 
doah  Valley  and  along  the  Potomac.  Whenever  a  person 
buys  a  piece  of  land  they  either  have  it  surveyed  again  or 
they  accept  the  figures  of  the  last  survey  as  correct;  and  so 
good  -a  surveyor  did  George  Washington  make,  so  correct 
were  his  measurements  and  so  reliable  his  figures  that,  to 
this  "day,  his  surveys  have  stood  unquestioned ;  and,  long 
after  his  death,  the  lawyers  whose  duty  it  was  to  look  up 
such  matters,  when  land  was  passed  from  one  owner  to 
another,  declared  that  the  only  old-time  surveys  in  Virginia 
that  could  be  depended  upon  as  correct  were  those  of  George 
Washington.  A  pretty  good  record  for  a  boy-surveyor,  is 
it  not? 

And  in  all  this  hard,  out-of-door  life  and  work,  Washing 
ton  was  laying  the  foundation  for  that  future  of  health  and 
strength,  of  decision  and  determination  that  helped  him  so 
much  when  he  grew  to  be  a  man  and  had  the  affairs  of  an 
army  and  a  nation  to  look  after.  His  rough  life  in  the  for 
est  and  on  the  hills  made  him  watchful  and  cautious ;  his 
mixing  with  all  sorts  of  people  made  him  study  the  ways  of 
men  and  taught  him  how  to  act  toward  them ;  the  keen  air 
and  the  bright  sunshine  were  better  than  medicine;  he 
grew  stronger  and  sturdier,  his  frame  filled  out  and  his 
muscles  hardened,  so  that  when  he  was  nineteen,  after  three 


HO IV  THE   SURVEYOR  BECAME   A    SOLDIER. 


years  experience  as  a  surveyor,  he  was  one  of  the  manliest 
and  one  of  the  stoutest  and  one  of  the  handsomest  young 
men  in  the  whole  colony  of  Virginia. 

And  now  came  a  new  experience.  P'or  the  first  and  only 
time  in  his  life,  George  Washington  left  his  native  land. 
His  older  brother,  Lawrence  Washington,  to  whom  he  was 

indebted  for  help  and  counsel  and 
kindness,  had  never  really  recovered 
from  the  fever  that  had  attacked 
him  when  he  was  fighting  the 
Spaniards  at  Carthagena.  In  1751 
his  health  broke  down  completely 
and  he  had  to  seek  a  warmer  cli 
mate.  So  he  went  to  Barbadoes, 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  he  had 
George  go  with  him  as  helper  and 
companion.  But  for  a  time  he  was 
obliged  to  do  without  his  brother's 
help,  for  George,  who  had  never 
been  vaccinated,  caught  the  small-pox  in  Barbadoes  and  was 
very  sick.  His  strong  constitution  helped  him  through, 
however,  and  when  he  was  well  again  he  sailed  back  to  Vir 
ginia  to  bring  Lawrence's  wife  to  join  her  sick  husband 
at  Barbadoes.  But  before  he  could  return  the  invalid  himself 
came  home  to  die. 

Lawrence  Washington's  death  was  a  great  blow  to  his 
brother  George.  For  young  George  loved  Lawrence  dearly 


'BETTER  THAN  MEDICINE. 


HO IV  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME   A    SOLDIER. 


43 


and  was  joined  with  him  in  numerous  plans  and  enterprises, 
such  as  are  always  undertaken  in  a  new  country.  Chief 
among  these  was  a  great  land  speculation  known  as  the  Ohio 
Company. 

The  Ohio  Company  was  an  association  of  rich  men  in 
England  and  in  Virginia  who  bought  great  tracts  of  land  be 
yond  the  Virginia  mountains.  They  offered  fine  opportunities 
to  people  who  would  make  their  homes  on  these  lands.  For 
this  would  render  the 
land  so  valuable  that 
the  owners  would 
be  able  to  get  a  great 
deal  of  money  for  the 

J 

tracts    left     for    sale 
after    the  new    coun 
try    had    been    thus 
"  opened  up  "  for  set 
tlement.     The    lands 
of  the  Ohio  company 
were  mostly  in  West 
ern  Pennsylvania.     This  region,  it  was  claimed,  was  within 
the  boundary  of  Virginia,  as  was  also  the  vast  stretch  of 
western  country  which  is  now  occupied  by  the  great  States 
of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wisconsin. 

But  England  was  not  the  only  nation  that  held  posses 
sions  in  North  America.  Canada  belonged  to  France,  and  the 
French  also  had  land  in  the  South,  so  that  they  claimed  all 


YOUNG   WASHINGTON'   AT    BARBADOE5. 


44 


HOW  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME   A    SOLDIER. 


the  Western  part  of  America  on  a  line  running  from  Mont 
real  to  New  Orleans.  To  enable  them  to  hold  and  occupy 
this  country,  the  Frenchmen  had  built  a  chain  of  sixty  forts. 
If  you  look  on  the  map  and  pick  out  the  cities  of  Montreal, 
Ogdensburg,  Detroit,  Toledo,  Fort  Wayne,  Vincennes, 

Natchez  and  New  Orleans, 
which  have  grown  up 
where  once  certain  of 
these  French  forts  stood, 
you  can  see  what  a  vast 
tract  of  country  France 
said  she  owned  and  was 
ready  to  defend,  in  North 
America. 

So  when  the  Ohio 
Company  began  to  send 
out  surveyors  and  road- 
builders  into  their  lands 
in  the  West,  the  French 
men  grew  excited  and  said 
that  the  Englishmen  were 
trying  to  steal  their  land. 
They  prepared  to  defend 

what  they  claimed  to  own,  and  made  ready  to  build  a  new  chain 
of  forts,  from  a  spot  where  the  city  of  Erie  now  stands  on 
Lake  Erie,  southward  to  the  Ohio  River. 
V  Now    Lawrence    Washington    had    been    the    American 


FRANCE    IN    POSSESSION. 


HO W  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME   A   SOLDIER.  45 

manager  of  the  Ohio  Company.  When,  therefore,  the  French 
men  began  to  grow  warlike  and  Virginia  talked  of  fighting 
back,  Lawrence  had  secured  from  the  royal  governor  of  the 
colony  of  Virginia,  whose  name  was  Dinwiddie,  an  appoint 
ment  for  his  brother  George,  then  a  boy  of  nineteen.  This 
position  gave  George  Washington  charge  of  the  militia 
men  who  might  be  called  upon,  in  the  country  about  Mount 
Vernon,  to  fight  against  the  French\ 

After  Lawrence  Washington's  death  in  1752,  and  while 
George,  who  had  charge  of  his  affairs,  was  looking  after 
matters  at  the  saddened  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  Dinwiddie, 
the  royal  governor  of  Virginia,  was  getting  ready  to  deal 
with  the  Frenchmen  who  were  becoming  more  and  more 
troublesome  in  the  Ohio  country.  It  was  necessary  to  do 
something  at  once  to  stop  their  insolence,  for  they  were 
annoying  the  English  settlers  and  stirring  up  the  Indians 
who  had  been  friendly  to  the  English.  Indeed,  unless  some 
thing  was  done  at  once,  the  Frenchmen  would  own  the  whole 
western  land. 

"  We  must  send  some  one  into  the  Ohio  Country  to  see  and 
talk  with  these  Frenchmen,"  Governor  Dinwiddie  said  ;  "  we 
must  find  out  what  they  mean  by  coming  into  our  king's 
dominion,  building  forts  on  English  land,  interfering  with 
our  settlers  and  stirring  up  the  friendly  Indians.  Whom 
shall  we  send  ?" 

And  Lord  Fairfax,  the  wise  but  odd  old  nobleman  who 
had  been  George  Washington's  friend,  said  to  the -Governor : 


HOW  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME  A   SOLDIER. 


11  I  know  just  the  man.  You  need  a  messenger  who  is  young 
and  strong  and  brave ;  one  who  knows  the  country ;  who  is 
clear-headed,  can  deal  with  the  Indians,  and  will  not  be  afraid 
to  tell  the  Frenchmen  just  what  is  right.  Send  George 
Washington." 

\J§3Q< George  Washington  was  appointed  Commissioner  to 
the  French  Posts  in  the  Ohio  Company.     He  was  provided 

with  the  paper  that 
showed  to  all  people 
that  he  was  Com 
missioner.  Then, 
supplied  with  letters 
to  the  French  Com- 
m  a  n  d  e  r ,  Major 
George  Washing 
ton,  as  he  was 
called,  aged  twenty- 
two,  set  out  from 
Williamsburg,  the 
capital  of  the  colony 
of  Virginia,  on  the 
thirtieth  of  October, 

1753.  He  was  to  undertake  a  perilous  journey  of  over  a 
thousand  miles ;  he  was  to  ask  the  Frenchmen  what  they 
meant  by  their  fort-building  and  their  loud  talk,  and  to  tell 
them,  in  the  name  of  the  King  of  England  and  the  Governor 
of  Virginia,  to  leave  the  Ohio  Country  at  once.  1 


HOW  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME  A    SOLDIER.  47 

He  went  to  say  good- by  to  his  mother,  who  was  living  in 
the  old  house  at  Fredericksburg  on  the  Rappahannock. 
Then  he  engaged  an  old  Dutch  soldier  named  Van  Braam, 
from  whom  he  had  learned  how  to  fence,  to  go  with  him  and 
talk  French  to  the  Frenchmen  (for  Washington  could  not 
speak  French) ;  he  hired,  also,  a  good  guide  named  Chris 
topher  Gist,  and  a  man  named  Davidson  who  could  talk 
with  the  Indians  in  their  own  language;  besides  these,  he 
took  four  frontiersmen,  who  knew  all  about  traveling  and 
camping  in  the  forests,  and  could  take  care  of  the  tents,  the 
horses  and  the  supplies.  And,  when  all  was  ready,  he  set 
out  from  Will's  Creek  on  the  Potomac  (now  Cumberland  in 
Western  Maryland),  on  the  fifteenth  of  November  and  at 
once  pushed  straight  into  the  wilderness. 

It  was  a  hard  and  dangerous  journey.  Over  the  mountains 
and  through  the  wilderness,  across  rivers  and  along  narrow 
trails  the  young  Commissioner  and  his  men  traveled  westward, 
winning  back  some  of  the  leading  Indian  chiefs  who  had 
gone  over  to  the  French,  until,  on  the  twelfth  of  December, 
he  stood  before  the  French  commander,  the  Chevalier  de  St. 
Pierre,  and  delivered  his  letters. 

Of  course__the  Frenchmen  refused  to  leave  the  land  they 
claimed__as__-th€ir  own.  The  French  commander  was  very 
polite  and  pleasant  to  the  young  Virginia  commissioner;  but 
that  was  all.  He  gave  Washington  a  letter  to  Governor 
Dinwiddie,  and  after  staying  in  the  French  fort  a  few  days, 
Washington  and  his  men  turned  their  faces  toward  home. 


48  HOW  THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME  A    SOLDIER. 

It  was  on  Christmas  Day  that  they  started  to  return,  and 
it  was  anything  but  a  merry  Christmas.  The  weather  was 
very  cold,  the  roads  were  terrible,  the  rivers  were  swollen 
and  full  of  floating  ice,  the  Indians  were  treacherous  and 


WASHINGTON   AND   THE   FRENCH   COMMANDER. 


unfriendly.  Anxious  to  get  back  as  quickly  as  possible, 
Washington  set  out  on  foot,  dressed  like  an  Indian,  and 
accompanied  only  by  Christopher  Gist,  leaving  the  other 
men  and  the  horses  to  come  on  as  well  as  they  could. 

The  two  men  had  a  journey  filled  with  peril  and  advent- 


HOW  THE    SURVEYOR   BECAME   A    SOLDIER, 


49 


ure;  but  when  at  last,  on  the  sixteenth  of  January,  he  reached 
Williamsburg,  alone,  and  delivered  to  Governor  Dinwiddie 
the  answer  of  the  French  commandant,  all  men  praised  him 
for  his  courage,  his  persistence,  his  firmness,  his  self-posses 
sion,  and  said:  "Well  done,  George  Washington  !  " 

No   one    had    expected    that    he    would    get    rid    of    the 
Frenchmen.     He  had  not  been  sent  with  that  purpose.     He 
had  simply  gone  as  the  mes 
senger    of    the  king  to  bid 
them   begone  and  to  bring 
back  their  reply. 

Orders  were  at  once 
issued  to  build  a  fort  upon 
a  point  reported  on  by 
Washington  as  the  best 
spot  in  the  Ohio  country 
from  which  the  English 
could  defend  their  rights. 

TV  U  fU 

I  his  spot  is  where  the  im 
portant  city  of  Pittsburg 
now  stands.  Men  were 
sent  out  to  build  it,  and 

soldiers  were  to  be  raised  at  once  in  Virginia  to  hold  the 
fort  against  the  French. 

The  fort  was  built,  the  soldiers  were  enlisted  and   Major 
George  Washington  was   appointed   to   drill   them  and  get 

them  ready  to  march  against  the  French  in  the  spring.)   He  \±(y^ 

I  f 

ii  rf*4 


WASHINGTON    IN    INDIAN    DRESS. 


50  HOW  THE  SURVEYOR   BECAME  A   SOLDIER. 

had  hard  work ;  but,  by  spring,  two  companies  of  soldiers 
were  ready.  Joshua  Fry  was  made  colonel  of  the  Virginia 
forces  ;  George  Washington  was  appointed  lieutenant-colonel 
and  dispatched  to  the  Ohio  country.  With  one  hundred  and 
fifty  men,  on  the  second  day  of  April,  1754,  he  set  his  face 
westward  again,  and,  going  over  the  road  he  had  travelled 
the  year  before,  marched  westward  toward  the  French. 

It  was  a  poor  enough  showing  with  which  to  face  the 
warlike  and  soldierly  Frenchmen,  who  might  object  to  the 
building  of  the  English  fort.  But  it  was  the  best  he  could 
do,  and  he  hoped  when  he  was  safely  within  the  new  fort  to 
be  a  match  for  any  force  the  Frenchmen  might  march 
against  him.  But  alas  I  when  he  came  near  the  place,  he 
heard  strange  and  most  unpleasant  news.  |The  men  who 
had  been  sent  to  build  the  fort  had  been  driven  away  by  a 
large  force  of  Frenchmen  who  had  surprised  them  at  their 
work.  The  half-finished  fort  had  been  pulled  down  and  a  new 
one  built  in  its  place  by  the  Frenchmen,  who  were  now 
marching  eastward  to  meet  Washington  and  his  Virginians, 
and  capture  them  or  drive  them  away. 

Thus,  you  see,  France  struck  the  first  blow.  For  to 
take  a  fort  from  another  nation  in  time  of  peace,  is  what  is 
called  "  an  act  of  war."  1  Washington  was  greatly  disturbed 
at  the  news,  for  he  hacKonly  a  part  of  the  soldiers  who  were 
to  be  sent  forward  and  the  Frenchmen  were  a  thousand 
strong.  But  he  was  not  the  man  to  turn  back.  He  sent  a 
messenger  to  Governor  Dinwiddie  and  to  the  governors  of 


HO IV   THE   SURVEYOR   BECAME   A    SOLDIER. 


53 


Pennsylvania  and  Maryland  asking  for  more  soldiers ;  then 
he  marched  on  to  a  spot  he  had  in  view  where  he  hoped  to 
be  able  to  build  a  good  enough  fort  to  hold  the  Frenchmen 
at  bay  until  help  came  to  him. 

At  a  place  called  Great  Meadows  he  came  upon  a  French 
force  led  by  Ensign 
Jumonville,  and  a 
sharp  fight  took  place. 
Jumonville  was 
killed,  some  of  the 
Frenchmen  were 
taken  prisoners  and 
the  war  had  really 
begun,  jit  was  a  war 


that  was  not  to  end 
for  seven  years ;  it 
was  to  drive  France 
out  of  America  and 
was  to  set  France  and 
England  fighting  each  other,  in  Europe  as  well  as  America. 
It  was  to  train  Americans  for  the  great  conflict  for  liberty 
which  they  were  to  wage  against  the  king  and  parliament 
of  England,  and  to  bring  to  renown  this  young  Virginian 
surveyor  wrho  fired  the  first  shot  of  the  war  in  this  little 
battle  at  Great  Meadows,  and  who  on  that  day,  the  twenty- 
eighth  of  May,  1754,  became  a  soldier  and  a  conqueror.  7 


^  MwMfib  rm'/frr  <^'('1<^c-$*x>  w 


AT    GREAT    MEADOWS. 


54  COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

* 

COLONEL   WASHINGTON    OF    MOUNT   VERNON. 

'  I  "HE  brave  man  —  like  the  boy  who  is  really  brave  —  does 
not  rush  blindly  into  danger;  but,  if  he  is  brought  face 
to  face  with  it,  he  acts  boldly  and  quickly.  This  was  Wash 
ington's  way.  He  had  been  victorious  in  the  little  fight 
which  he  had  been  forced  to  make,  but  he  knew  that,  if  more 
fighting  were  to  follow,  as  he  felt  sure  it  would,  he  must 
stand  his  ground  firmly  and  try  to  hold  his  own. 

"  I  will  not  be  surprised,"  he  wrote  to  the  Governor  of 
Virginia,  begging  for  the  soldiers  that  had  been  promised 
him;  "and  you  may  hear  that  I  am  beaten.  But  you  will 
hear  at  the  same  time  that  we  have  done  our  duty,  in  fight 
ing  as  long  as  there  was  a  shadow  of  hope."  These  were 
brave  words  for  a  young  leader  in  the  strait  in  which  he 
found  himself,  but  it  was  George  Washington's  way  of 
doing  things  all  through  his  life. 

A  few  more  soldiers  were  sent  to  him  and  with  these 
troops  and  his  Indian  helpers  he  marched  on  to  meet  the 
French.  With  the  new  men  came  the  news  that  Colonel 
Fry  who  was  to  lead  them  on,  was  dead.  Washington  was 
therefore  in  chief  command  of  his  little  army.  He  was 
Colonel  Washington  now. 


COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON.  55 

After  he  had  marched  through  the  mountains,  he  heard 
that  the  Frenchmen,  a  thousand  strong,  were  moving 
towards  him.  He  was  in  no  safe  place  to  give  them  battle, 
so  he  fell  back  to  Great  Meadows  and  finished  a  hastily- 
made  fort  of  logs  and  dirt,  which  he  well  named  Fort  Neces 
sity.  Here  on  the  third  of  July,  1754,  the  French  found 
him. 

At  once  the  dauntless  courage  of  Washington  asserted 
itself.  If  they  wish  a  battle,  let  them  have  it  now,  he  said; 
and,  throwing  open  the  door  of  his  flimsy  little  fort,  he 
marched  with  his  men  out  into  the  open  meadow,  daring  the 
Frenchmen  to  a  fight. 

But  they  did  not  accept  his  "  double  dare."  Instead, 
they  staid  in  the  woods  and  fired  at  the  Americans,  not 
showing  themselves  where  they  could  be  fought  openly. 
So  Washington  marched  back  into  the  fort  again,  and  for 
nine  hours  the  Frenchmen  battered  and  besieged  it. 

Then  they  sent  word  to  Washington  that  it  was  of  no 
use  for  him  to  hope  to  whip  them,  as  they  had  four  times  as 
many  men  as  he  had  and  everything  was  in  their  favor. 
"  Give  us  up  the  fort,"  they  said ;  "  return  the  prisoners  you 
have  taken  ;  promise  not  to  build  any  more  forts  around  here 
for  a  year,  and  we'll  call  it  square  and  let  you  go  home  with 
out  any  more  fighting." 

Washington  hated  to  agree  to  this  ;  but  when  he  came  to 
look  things  over  and  see  how  useless  it  was  for  him  to  try 
to  beat  the  French,  with  his  men  half-starved,  his  powder 


COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT    VERNON. 


gone  and  his  Indian  helpers  running  away,  he  remembered 
the  old  proverb  that  says,  "the  better  part  of  valor  is  dis 
cretion."  So  he  agreed  to  the  French  terms  and,  on  the 

fourth  of  July, 
gave  up  his  crazy 
little  fort  and 
marched  back  to 
ward  home.  He 
had  been  defeated, 


but  he  was  by 
no  means  con 
quered. 

Still,  he  felt 
very  badly  over 
the  way  things 
had  turned  out. 
If  the  help  that 
had  been  prom 
ised  him  had 


BITS   OF   OLD  WILLIAMSBURG. 


only  been  given, 

he  would  perhaps  have  told  quite  another  story.  But  when  he 
got  back  to  Williamsburg  he  found  that  people  looked  upon 
him  as  a  hero  and  praised  his  brave  and  gallant  attempt ;  he 
was  publicly  thanked  for  what  he  had  done  and  told  to  fill 
up  his  regiment  and  march  once  more  against  the  French. 


COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON.  57 

But  he  knew  that  such  a  plan  was  foolish.  "  We  must 
not  try  to  fight  the  French  until  we  are  all  ready,"  he  said. 
"  When  enough  men  have  been  raised  to  make  such  an  expe 
dition  wise,  you  can  depend  upon  me  ;  but  there  is  no  sense 
in  marching  to  certain  defeat.  And  that  is  what  an  attempt 
now  would  mean." 

So  the  Virginians  set  about  raising  a  thousand  men ; 
but  when  the  English  officer  who  was  to  have  charge  of  the 
troops  said  that  Washington,  not  being  a  regular  soldier  in 
the  British  army,  but  only  an  American  militiaman,  could 
not  be  a  colonel  but  only  a  captain,  Washington  refused  to 
accept  such  a  command.  It  was  no  way,  he  declared,  to 
treat  a  man  who  had  been  asked  to  lead ;  and  rather  than  be  so 
used,  he  said,  he  would  give  up  his  commission.  And  he 
did,  retiring  to  Mount  Vernon,  which  had  been  given  to  him 
by  Lawrence  Washington  when  he  died. 

The  next  year  things  were  different.  The  King  of  En 
gland  and  his  advisers  determined  to  make  a  stand  in  Amer 
ica  against  the  French.  So  they  sent  over  two  regiments 
of  British  troops,  under  command  of  a  brave  soldier  whose 
name  was  Major  General  Braddock,  and  told  him  to  get  what 
help  he  could  in  Virginia  and  drive  out  the  French  at  once. 

General  Braddock  came  to  Virginia  with  his  splendid- 
looking  fighting  men.  When  he  had  studied  the  situation 
there,  one  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  ask  Colonel 
George  Washington  of  Mount  Vernon  to  come  with  him  as 
one  of  his  chief  assistants,  called  an  aid-de-camp. 


58  COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT    VERNON. 


Washington  at  once  accepted.  He  saw  that,  now,  the 
King  of  England  "  meant  business,"  and  that,  if  General 
Braddock  were  as  wise  as  he  was  brave,  the  trouble  in  the 
Ohio  country  might  be  speedily  ended  and  the  French 
driven  out. 

But  when  he  had  joined  General  Braddock  he  discovered 
that  that  brave  but  obstinate  leader  thought 
that  battles  were  to  be  fought  in  America  just 
the  same  as  in  Europe,  and  that  soldiers  could 
be  marched  against  such  forest-fighters  as  the 
French  and  Indians  as  if  they  were  going  on 
a  parade.  This  made  Washington  feel  very 
badly  and  he  did  all  he  could  to  advise  caution. 

BRADDOCK. 

It  was  no  use  however.  General  Braddock  said 
he  was  a  soldier  and  knew  how  to  fight,  and  he  didn't  wish 
for  any  advice  from  these  Americans  who  had  never  seen  a 
real  battle. 

At  last  everything  was  ready,  and  in  July,  1755,  the  army, 
led  by  General  Braddock,  marched  off  to  attack  the  fort 
which  the  French  had  built  at  Pittsburg  and  had  named 
Fort  Duquesne. 

Washington  had  worked  so  hard  to  get  things  ready  that 
he  was  sick  in  bed  with  fever  when  the  soldiers  started  ;  but, 
without  waiting  to  get  well,  he  hurried  after  them  and 
caught  up  with  them  on  the  ninth  of  July,  at  a  ford  on  the 
Monongahela,  fifteen  miles  from  Fort  Duquesne. 

The  British  troops,  in  full  uniform,  and  in  regular  order 


COT.OVEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON. 


59 


as  if  they  were  to  drill  before  the  king,  marched  straight  on 
in  splendid  array.  Washington  thought  it  the  most  beauti 
ful  show  he  had  ever  seen ;  but  he  said  to  the  general :  "  Do  not 
let  the  soldiers  march  into  the  woods  like  that.  The 
Frenchmen  and  the  Indians  may  even  now  be  hiding  behind 
the  trees  ready  to  shoot  us  down.  Let  me  send  some  men 
ahead  to  see  where  they  are  and  let  some  of  our  Virginians 
who  are  used  to  fighting  in  the  forest  go  before  to  clear 
them  away."  But  Gen 
eral  Braddock  told  him 
to  mind  his  own  busi 
ness,  and  marched  on  as 
gallantly  as  ever. 

Suddenly,  just  as  they 
reached  a  narrow  part  of 
the  road,  where  the  woods 
were  all  about  them,  the 
Frenchmen  and  Indians 
who  were  waiting  for 

them       behind      the     °reat  BRADDOCK'S  HEADQUARTERS  IN  WEST  VIRGINIA. 

£*  (From  a  recent  sketch.) 

trees  and  underbrush,  opened  fire  upon  the  British  troops,  and 
there  came  just  such  a  dreadful  time  as  Washington  had 
feared.  But,  even  now,  Braddock  would  not  give  in.  His 
soldiers  must  fight  as  they  had  been  drilled  to  fight  in 
Europe,  and,  when  the  Virginians  who  were  with  him  tried 
to  fight  as  they  had  been  accustomed  to,  he  called  them 
cowards  and  ordered  them  to  form  in  line. 


6o 


COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON. 


It  was  all  over  very  soon.  The  British  soldiers,  fired 
upon  from  all  sides  and  scarcely  able  to  see  where  their  ene 
mies  were,  became  frightened,  huddled  together  and  made 
all  the  better  marks  for  the  bullets  of  the  French  and 
Indians  hiding  among  the  trees  and  bushes.  Then,  General 
Braddock  fell  from  his  horse,  mortally  wounded ;  his  splen 
didly-drilled  red-coats  broke  into 
panic,  turned  and  run  awav. 
and  only  the  coolness  of 
Washington  and  the 


Virginian    forest-fighters    who 
were  with  him,  saved  the  entire  army 
from  being  cut  to  pieces. 

Washington  fought  like  a  hero.  Two  horses 
that  he  rode  were  killed  while  he  kept  in  the  saddle ;  his 
coat  was  shot  through  and  through,  and  it  seemed  as  if  he 
would  be  killed  any  moment.  But  he  kept  on  fighting,  caring 
nothing  for  danger.  He  tried  to  turn  back  the  fleeing  British 
troops  ;  he  tried  to  bring  back  the  cannons,  and,  when  the  gun 
ners  ran  away,  he  leaped  from  his  horse  and  aimed  and  fired 
the  cannons  himself.  Then  with  his  Virginians,  that  Brad- 


COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON.  63 

dock  had  so  despised  as  soldiers,  he  protected  the  rear  of  the 
retreating  army,  carried  off  the  dying  general  and,  cool  and 
collected  in  the  midst  of  all  the  terrible  things  that  were 

o 

happening,  saved  the  British  army  from  slaughter,  buried 
poor  General  Braddock  in  the  Virginia  woods  and  finally 
brought  back  to  the  settlements  what  was  left  of  that  splen 
did  army  of  the  king.  He  was  the  only  man,  in  all  that 
time  of  disaster,  who  came  out  of  the  fight  with  glory  and 
renown. 

After  that,  you  may  be  sure  his  advice  was  followed. 
When  another  army  was  raised,  and,  after  three  years  of  wait 
ing  and  preparation,  the  soldiers,  at  last,  were  ready  to  go 
once  more  against  the  French,  Washington's  plans  were 
adopted  ;  his  way  of  doing  things  was  followed  out,  and  he 
was  appointed  Commander-in-Chief  of  all  the  forces  in 
Virginia. 

He  did  not  seek  the  command ;  he  did  not  want  it.  But 
it  was  Washington's  way  never  to  say  no  to  what  seemed  to 
be  his  duty.  "  If  it  is  in  my  power  to  avoid  going  to  the  Ohio 
again,"  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  "  I  shall.  But  if  the  com 
mand  is  pressed  upon  me  by  the  voice  of  the  country,  it 
would  be  dishonorable  in  me  to  refuse  it."  That  is  the 
way  that  office  should  be  accepted  and  duty  looked  at  by 
every  man  and  by  every  boy,  and,  as  I  have  told  you  once 
before,  that  was  Washington's  way. 

Once  more  British  soldiers  were  sent  to  Virginia,  and 
with  them,  marching  westward,  went  Washington  and  his 


64  COLONEL    WASHINGTON   OF  MOUNT    VERNON. 

Virginians.  But  the  English  government  had  learned  wis 
dom  through  defeat,  and  things  were  better  done  this  time. 
Soldiers  were  sent  to  fight  the  French  in  Canada,  too,  and 
the  gallant  Frenchmen  found  their  hands  so  full  that  they 
had  to  give  up  some  of  the  things  they  hoped  to  keep.  So 
when  the  British  and  Virginians,  in  the  Ohio  country,  came 
to  the  fort  they  had  been  so  long  trying  to  capture,  the 
French  had  gone  away,  and  Washington  and  his  men  marched 
into  the  ruined  and  smouldering  fort,  where,  not  many  years 
after,  the  town  of  Pittsburg  was  built. 

^Then  he  went  home  again.  He  was  now  the  leading 
man  in  Virginia  and,  though  only  twenty-six,  he  was  famous 
throughout  all  the  Colonies  as  a  brave  and  daring  leader,  a 
wise  and  safe  adviser,  a  cautious  and  clear-headed  man. 

Soon  after  his  return  to  Mount 
Vernon  he  married  a  wife.  This  was 
Mrs.  Martha  Custis  of  White  House. 
She  was  a  wealthy,  charming,  brown- 
eyed  widow  of  twenty-six.  To  her  Wash 
ington  had  become  engaged,  just  before 
OF  his  last  march  against  the  French. 


MOUNT  VERNON. 


They  were  married  on  the  sixth  of 
January,  1759,  and  if  any  boy  or  girl  wishes  to  know  what 
a  fitting  wife  to  a  great  man  this  Virginian  woman  proved, 
let  them  read,  when  they  are  older,  Washington  Irving's  long 
life  of  George  Washington  and  his  wife,  Martha.  ~) 

Three   months  after  his  marriage,  Colonel   Washington 


COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON. 


took  his  seat  in  the  Virginia  legislature,  then  called  "The 
House  of  Burgesses."  He  had  been  elected  a  member  while 
with  the  troops  at  Fort  Duquesne,  and  when  he  took  his  seat, 
the  speaker,  or  presiding  officer  of  the  House  of  Burgesses, 
publicly  thanked  him  for  his  honorable  record  in  the  war. 
Washington  was  surprised,  but  feeling  that  he  ought  to 


THE  OLD  CAPITOL  AT   WILLIAMSBURG   TN  VIRGINIA. 
(  Where  the  House  of  Burgesses  met. ) 

say  something,  he  rose  to  reply.  He  was  never  a  ready  or 
what  is  called  "  extemporaneous  "  speaker ;  so  he  hesitated, 
and  blushed  and  did  not  know  what  to  say;  whereupon  the 
speaker  said:  "  Sit  down,  Mr.  Washington.  Your  modesty 
equals  your  valor,  and  that  surpasses  the  power  of  any  Ian- 


66  COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON. 

guage    I  possess;"  which  was  a  very  pretty  and  very  just 
compliment,  was  it  not? 

\  Washington  and  his  wife,  and  the  two  little  children  of 
Mrs.  Custis,  Martha  and  John  Parke  Custis,  began  life  at 
Mount  Vernon.  The  property  had  grown  very  valuable. 
Mrs.  Washington  was  wealthy,  and  the  farmer's  son  of  the 
Rappahannock  plantation  was  now  Colonel  Washington  of 
Mount  Vernon,  and  one  of  the  richest  men  in  Virginia. 

Mount  Vernon  was  a  real  Virginia  mansion.  It  was  a 
large,  two-story  house  with  four  rooms  on  each  floor;  a  high 
and  broad  piazza,  ran  along  the  front  and  looked  down  upon 
the  beautiful  Potomac,  flowing  past  the  estate.  Across  the 
river  were  the  fields  and  forests  of  Maryland,  and  all  about 
the  house  stretched  the  broad  acres  of  the  Mount  Vernon 
plantation.  Here  with  his  dearly-loved  wife  and  her  chil 
dren,  with  a  large  estate  to  look  after  and  care  for,  with 
health  and  wealth  and  friends  and  the  respect  of  his  neigh 
bors  and  fellow-citizens,  George  Washington  settled  down, 
as  he  thought,  to  the  life  of  a  country  gentleman,  of  which 
he  wrote,  "  I  hope  to  find  more  happiness  in  retirement  than 
I  ever  experienced  in  the  wide  and  bustling  world,  f 

And,  for  a  time,  he  did  find  much  happiness  there.  He 
loved  the  busy  life  indoors  and  out.  He  was  fond  of  riding 
and  hunting,  and  we  hear  of  his  splendid  horses  -  -  Magnolia, 
the  Arabian,  and  Blueskin,  his  favorite  iron-gray,  and  his 
hunting-horses,  Chinkling,  and  Valiant  and  Ajax;  we  hear 
of  his  dogs  Vulcan  and  Ringwood  and  Music,  Sweetlips  and 


WASHINGTON  S   SEAL  AND   COAT   OF 
ARMS. 


COLONEL   GEORGE   WASHINGTON 
OF   MOUNT   VERNON 


MRS.    MARTHA    CUSTIS 
OF   V^HITE    HOUSE, 

Married  at  St.  Paul's  Church,  near 
White  House,  Virginia,  on  the 
Seventeenth  of  January,  1759. 


COLONEL   AND   MRS.    GEORGE   WASHINGTON   OF   MOUNT   VERNON. 


COLONEL    WASHINGTON  OF  MOUNT   VERNON.  69 

Singer  and  Truelove,  Forrester  and  Rockvvood  and  the  rest; 
we  read  of  his  riding  "  after  the  hounds,"  as  it  was  called,  to 
hunt  the  black  fox  or  the  gray,  and  how,  with  his  huntsman, 
"  Billy  Lee,"  he  took  the  field  at  sunrise,  dressed  in  a  short 
blue  hunting  jacket,  a  scarlet  waistcoat,  buckskin  breeches, 
top-boots,  velvet  cap  and  carrying  his  long-thonged  whip. 

Mount  Vernon  welcomed  many  visitors,  for  one  of  the 
chief  rules  of  a  Virginia  home  in  those  days  was  :  Welcome ! 
and  How  d'ye  do  !  to  all.  This  open  hospitality  was  always 
part  of  Washington's  nature,  and  even  in  his  early  days,  the 
young  colonel  and  his  wife  had  a  host  of  friends.  In  fact, 
to  be  without  company  was  so  rare  an  event,  that  Washing 
ton  would  write  down  the  fact  in  his  diary,  and  he  said  that, 
though  he  owned  more  than  a  hundred  cows,  he  had  to  buy 
butter. 

He  was  as  strong  and  healthy  as  ever.  When  he  was 
forty  years  old  he  could  throw  the  heavy  hammer  farther 
than  anyone  else ;  no  man  could  ride  better,  none  could  walk 
further,  none  was  of  a  more  noble  and  commanding  presence 
than  Colonel  George  Washington.  He  kept  note  of  every 
thing  that  was  going  on  in  the  colonies  and  in  England;  he 
was  a  leader  in  politics  and  church  work,  in  generous  and 
helpful  deeds,  and  in  all  that  makes  a  man  a  good  citizen,  a 
kind  neighbor  and  a  faithful  friend. 

So  he  grew  on  from  young  manhood  to  middle  age,  and, 
for  over  fifteen  years,  lived  as  a  well-to-do  country  gentleman 
at  Mount  Vernon. 


7o  HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE    COUNTRY. 

Then  came  the  events  that  made  America  free  and  made 
Washington  famous;  but,  before  that  glorious  end  was 
reached,  there  were  many  dark  and  bitter  days,  and  many  a 
time  that  tried  the  courage,  the  temper  and  faith  of  this 
great  and  noble  man. 


'  CHAPTER   V. 

HOW    JOHN    ADAMS    OF    MASSACHUSETTS    SAVED    THE 

COUNTRY. 

*\  1[  THEN  a  boy  or  girl  has  tried  to  do  a  hard  sum  in 
*  ^  arithmetic  and  has  succeeded,  something  is  obtained 
besides  the  answer;  it  is  confidence.  The  French  and  Indian 
war  was  the  hard  sum  set  for  the  American  colonies,  and,  when 
it  was  over,  when  Canada  was  conquered  and  the  French  sol 
diers  were  driven  out  of  America,  the  thirteen  colonies  cried 
out :  "  We  helped  to  do  it ;  we  got  the  answer  to  the  sum  our 
selves  !  "  They  begun  to  see  how  strong  they  were,  if  they 
joined  together  to  do  anything,  and  when  England  attempted 
to  make  them  pay  out  money  without  the  right  to  say  for 
what  that  money  should  be  spent,  the  colonies  said  :  "  See  here ! 
that  is  not  fair.  The  money  is  ours ;  you  have  no  right  to 
take  -sit.  from  us  nor  to  use  it  without  our  having  anything 
to  say  about  it." 


HO IV  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE   COUNTRY.  71 

But  England  was  just  like  General  Braddock.  She  was 
obstinate  and  determined  to  have  her  own  way,  and  she  said 
to  the  colonies,  as  Braddock  did  to  Washington  :  "You  mind 
your  own  business  !  You  haven't  anything  to  say  in  this 
matter,  but  must  just  do  as  I  tell  you  to." 

There  were  now  two  millions  of  people  in  the  thirteen 
colonies  ;  they  were  no  longer  separate  sections,  caring  noth 
ing  about  any  colony  except  their  own  ;  they  had  sent  men 
to  the  army  who  side  by  side  had  fought  the  French  and 
Indians.  Thus  the  people  of  Massachusetts  and  of  Virginia, 
the  men  of  New  York  and  of  South  Carolina,  had  been 
broueht  to  know  each  other  better  and  to  believe  that  the 

o 

one  way  for  the  colonies  to  be  prosperous  and  successful 
was  to  be  united  and  friendly,  to  form  a  partnership  to 
govern  themselves,  and  to  be,  not  English  colonists,  but 
Americans. 

)  So  when   the  British   government  tried  to  force  money 


L. 


from  them  by  unjust  taxes,  the  colonies  objected;  then  they 
"  talked  back  "  ;  then  they  resisted,  and  dared  the  King  of  En 
gland  to  "  come  and  get  it."  For  twelve  years  the  quarrel 
went  on. [  England  said  America  should  or  — ;  America  said 
she  wouldn't,  unless  — ;  then  she  dropped  the  "unless  "  and 
said  she  wouldn't  anyhow,  and,  when  the  British  government 
attempted  to  back  up  its  threats,  the  men  of  the  colonies 
stood  up  with  guns  in  their  hands ;  there  was  a  sharp  fight 
between  the  American  Minute  Men  and  Lord  Percy's  red 
coats  on  Lexington  Common  and  another  by  the  old  North 


72 


HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE   COUNTRY. 


Bridge    at    Concord,  and    the    war   of  the    Revolution   had 
begun. 

Like  a  great  many  other  thoughtful  men  in  America, 
George  Washington  had  feared  trouble  from  the  first.  He 
saw  that  England  would  never  consent  to  allow  her  Ameri 
can  colonies  to  have  anything  to  say  in  this  matter  of  tax 
ing  and  spending;  he  knew  that  America  was  growing  so 
strong  and  united  that  she  would  not  long  be  willing  to  be 
England's  "  good  little  girl,"  to  do  as  she  was  told  and  ask 

no  questions,  and  he  knew 
that  it  meant  more  than 
simply  talking  back  to  one 
another ;  he  knew  that  it 
meant,  if  neither  side  would 
give  in,  a  war  between  the 
colonies  and  the  king;  and 
"  if  that  comes  to  pass,"  he 
said,  "  more  blood  will  be 
shed  than  history  has  ever 
yet  furnished  instances  of  in  the  annals  of  North  America." 
\n  September,  1774,  the  thirteen  colonies  sent  their  best 
men  to  Philadelphia  to  meet  and  talk  things  over  in  the 
building  known  as  Carpenters'  Hall.  This  convention  is 
now  known  as  the  First  Continental  Congress.  George 
Washington  was  one  of  the  men  sent  by  Virginia,  and 
although  he  did  not  make  any  speeches  —  he  was  always 
a  silent  man,  you  know  —  he  worked  quietly  and  left  the 


THE    FIRST   MARTYRS    FOR    LIBERTY. 


HO  l\'  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE   COUNTRY. 


73 


talking  to  others.  The  wisdom  of  his  advice  and  the  way 
in  which  he  tried  to  bring  all  the  members  of  the  Con 
gress  into  friendship  and  harmony  were  so  noticeable  that, 
when  one  of  the  members  was  asked  whom  he  considered 
the  greatest  man  in  the  Congress,  he  answered  at  once :  "  If 
you  mean  the  man  who  knows  the  most  and  has  the  best 
judgment,  Colonel  Washington  of 
Virginia  is  unquestionably  the 
greatest  man  on  that  floor." 

The  First  Continental  Con 
gress  told  King  George  some 
plain  truths.  "You  must  not 
treat  your  American  colonies  so 
meanly,"  they  said.  "  We  will 
not  stand  it.  If  we  can  have 
nothing  to  say  in  your  parliament, 

then  we  will  not  do    as  you   say.     If  we  are  to   be   taxed, 
then  we  must  say  how  the  money  we  pay  shall  be  spent." 

But  such  talk  only  made  King  George  and  his  ministers 
angry  and  they  went  on  the  same  as  before.  So  when  Wash 
ington  returned  to  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  he  told  the 
people:  "We  must  get  ready  to  do  something."  The  man 
who  had  said :  "  If  necessary,  I  will  raise  a  thousand  men, 
subsist  them  at  my  own  expense  and  march  to  the  relief  of 
Boston,"  was  now  ready  to  make  good  his  word.  He  began  to 
drill  soldiers,  and  wrote  to  his  brother  that,  if  need  be,  he 
would  accept  the  command  of  the  soldiers  from  Virginia  and 


74  HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE    COUNTRY. 

that  it  was  his  full  intention  to  devote  his  life  and  fonune  to 
the  cause. 

In  May,  1775,  the  second  Continental  Congress  met  at 
Philadelphia.  Its  members  had  heard  the  news  from  Lex- 
ington  and  Concord,  and  now  had  come  together  for  seri 
ous  business.  The  royal  governors  had  run  away  as  soon 
as  the  trouble  began  ;  the  colonies  had  to  look  after  them 
selves  and  they  said  they  could  do  this  much  better  without 
the  royal  governors.  So  they  told  the  Congress  to  govern 
the  united  colonies  and  to  make  laws  for  that  purpose. 

Congress  also  took  charge  of  the  soldiers  that  hurried  to 
Boston  after  the  bloodshed  at  Lexington  and  Concord,  ready 
to  fight  the  red-coated  soldiers  of  the  king.  But  these  sol 
diers  must  have  a  leader.  Whom  should  he  be  ? 

There  were,  in  this  Congress,  certain  men  who  wished  to 
"go  slow  "  and  try  to  "  patch  things  up  "  with  King  George 
and  his  ministers.  There  were  others  who  felt  that  they 
were  great  men  and  ought  to  be  in  the  highest  position. 
There  were  still  others  who  were  not  yet  Americans,  but 
thought  only  about  the  good  that  could  come  to  his  own 
colony.  It  is  so  with  all  new  movements,  about  which 
there  is  any  uncertainty,  but  all  these  men,  in  time,  came  to 
be  patriotic  and  splendid  Americans. 

So,  when  the  question  arose  as  to  who  should  be  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  American  army  at  Boston,  there 
was  at  first  some  hesitation.  The  soldiers  facing  the  Brit 
ish  there  were  mostly  New  England  "  minute  men  "  and 


HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE   COUNTRY. 


7B 


militia  men,  and  some  of  the  members  of  Congress  thought 
a  New  England  general  should  be  their  leader.  The  South 
ern  members  wanted  an  American  army  made  up  from  all 
the  colonies,  with  a  general  appointed  from  the  South.  Foi 
several  days  nothing  was  done.  Time  was  precious.  The. 


THE    FLAG    ON    BUNKER    HILL. 

("  Come  over  tf  you  dare"  it  said  to  the  British  in  Boston.} 

army  must  be  gathered  at  once  if  a  bold  stand  was  to  be 
taken  ;  and  if  Congress  was  to  take  charge  of  the  soldiers  at 
Boston,  Congress  must  give  its  army  a  leader. 

Then   John  Adams  of  Massachusetts  stood  up  in  Con 
gress.     He  was  an  active  and  able  man,  who  saw  that  some- 


76  HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED   THE   COUNTRY. 

thing  must  be  done  at  once,  and,  having  looked  the  ground 
over  knew  there  was  but  one  man  in  America  to  be  selected 
for  this  high  command.  "  I  have  but  one  gentleman  in  my 
mind,"  he  said,  addressing  the  Congress.  "  He  is  a  certain 
gentleman  from  Virginia  who  is  among  us  and  is  well 
known  to  us  all.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  skill  and  experience 
as  an  officer;  his  independent  fortune,  great  talents  and 
•y>  excellent  universal  character  would  command  the  approba- 
j/tion  of  all  the  colonies  better  than  any  other  person  in  the 
Union."  Everyone  knew  whom  John  Adams  meant ;  every- 
body  looked  in  the  same  direction,  and  a  modest  gentleman, 
dressed  in  a  colonel's  uniform  of  blue  and  buff,  hurriedly 
rose  and  slipped  out  of  the  room.  I^tljohn  Adams's  words 
decided  the  question.  The  result  of  the  debate  was  that, 
on  the  fifteenth  of  June,  1775,  his  proposition  was  accepted 
and  George  Washington  of  Virginia  was  unanimously  elected 
commander-in-chief  of  the  Continental  Army?j  Thereupon 
the  new  leader,  now  General  Washington,  rose  in  his  place  to 
thank  the  Congress  for  the  honor  conferred  upon  him  ;  and, 
to  his  words  of  acceptance,  he  added  these :  "  I  beg  it  to  be 
remembered  by  every  gentleman  in  the  room  that  I  this  day 
declare  with  the  utmost  sincerity  I  do  not  think  myself 
equal  to  the  command  I  am  honored  with."  Then,  adding 
to  his  modesty  a  patriotic  generosity,  he  refused  to  accept 
any  of  the  salary  set  apart  for  his  services  and  promised  an 
exact  account  of  all  his  expenses. 

It  was  a  great  honor,  but  it  was  a  great  responsibility. 


HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE    COUNTRY.  77 

As  such  Washington  looked  upon  it  when  he  accepted  the 
command.  "It  is  a  trust  too  great  for  my  capacity,"  he 
wrote  to  his  wife ;  "  but  it  has  been  a  kind  of  destiny  that 
has  thrown  me  upon  it,  and  it  was  utterly  out  of  my  power 
to  refuse  it." 

Did  you  ever  make  a  promise  that  you  felt  was  what  the 
boys  call  "  a  big  contract  ?  "  But,  if  you  were  a  plucky  J}oy 
or  a  conscientious  girl,  you  tried  hard  to  carry  out  your 
promise,  did  you  not?  It  was  just  so  with  Washington. 
He  had  said,  "  I  will  command  your  army."  And  yet  none 
knew  better  than  did  he,  how  little  the  fighting  men  of  the 
colonies  were  like  the  trained  troops  of  England  that  they 
must  face  in  battle.  They  were  patriotic,  brave  and  deter 
mined  ;  this  he  knew,  but  they  were  untrained,  undisciplined 
and  unprepared  for  war;  there  was  but  little  money  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  a  struggle  with  a  great  and  wealthy  nation  ; 
they  had  no  one  to  help  them,  no  friends  to  lend  them 
money  and  every  man  felt  that  he  had  something  to  say 
about  how  things  should  be  done. 

So  he  rode  on  toward  Boston.  And  as  he  rode,  escorted 
by  a  troop  of  horsemen,  tidings  came  of  the  Battle  of 
Bunker  Hill.  There  had  been  a  fight,  people  said,  in  which 
the  British  had  stormed  the  fortifications  of  the  Americans 
and  finally  driven  them  out.  It  looked  like  a  defeat. 

"Why  did  they  retreat?"  General  Washington  asked 
the  hard-riding  messenger  whom  he  met  on  the  road  to 
New  York,  galloping  to  Congress  with  the  news. 


HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE   COUNTRY. 


"  For  want  of 
ammunition/'  the 
messenger  replied. 

"  And  did  they 
stand  the  fire  of 
the  British  re^u- 

o 

lars  as  long  as  they 
had  ammunition?" 
Washington  asked 
anxiously. 

"That  they 
did,"  the  post-rider 
cried  enthusiastic 
ally,  "  and  held  their 
own  fire  in  reserve  until  the  enemy  were  within  eight  rods." 
A  look  of  relief  and  satisfaction  came  to  Washington's 
face.  "  Then  the  liberties 
of  the  country  are  safe,  gen 
tlemen,"  he  said  to  Generals 
Schuyler  and  Lee  who  ac 
companied  him.  And  he 
rode  forward,  feeling  that 
a  defeat  which  proved  the 
pluck  and  fighting  qualities 
of  the  Continentals  was 
really  no  defeat  but  a  vic 
tory.  "THAT  THEY  DID,"  THE  POST-RIDER  CRIED. 


"DID   THEY   STAND   THE    FIRE?"    WASHINGTON    ASKED 

ANXIOUSLY. 


HO  W  JOHN  ADA  MS  SAVED    THE   COUNTRY. 


81 


led  the  band  ? 
a    boy    named 


If  Washington  had  imagined  that  his  fame  was  known 
only  to  Virginia  the  greetings  that  he  met  on  his  long  ride 
from  Philadelphia  to  Boston  opened  his  eyes  to  quite  the 
opposite.  He  was  the  commander-in-chief ;  upon  him  all 
the  hopes  of"  the  people  rested ;  and,  as  he  rode  from  town  to 
town,  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls  came  out  to  meet  and 
welcome  him  and  bid  him  God  speed.  At  New  Haven  the 
boys  from  Yale  College  met  him  with  a  band  of  music,  and 
who  do  you  suppose 
Why, 
Noah 

Webster,  who  after 
wards  made  the  two 
books  that  we  use  in 
our  schools  to-day  — 
Webster's  spelling- 
book  and  Webster's 
dictionary. 

^Y^o  ne  r°de  on  to 
his  duty,  the  foremost 
man  in  America.  And, 
on  the  morning  of 

Monday,  the  third  day  of  July,  1775,  General  George  Wash 
ington  rode  into  the  broad  pastures  known  as  Cambridge 
common,  and,  beneath  the  spreading  branches  of  an  elm 
tree,  which  still  stands --an  old  tree  now,  carefully  preserved 
and  famous  through  all  the  land  -  -  he  drew  his  sword  and 


82  HOW  JOHN  ADAMS  SAVED    THE    COUNTRY. 

in  presence  of  the  assembled  army  and  a  crowd  of  curious 
and  enthusiastic  people,  he  took  command  of  the  Continental 
Army  as  General. 

He  was  forty-three  years  old --just  as  old  as  Julius 
Caesar  when  he  took  command  of  the  army  in  Gaul  and 
made  himself  great.  Just  as  old  as  Napoleon  when  he 
made  the  great  mistake  of  his  life  and  declared  war  against 
Russia.  But  how  different  from  these  two  conquerors  was 
George  Washington.  What  they  did  for  love  of  power  he 
did  for  love  of  liberty  —  sacrificing  comfort,  ease,  the  pleasures 
of  home  and  the  quiet  life  he  loved,  because  he  felt  it  to  be 
his  duty. 

As  he  sat  his  horse,  like  the  gallant  soldier  he  was,  under 
the  Cambridge  elm  that  warm  July  morning,  he  was  what 
we  call  an  imposing  figure.  He  was  tall,  stalwart  and  erect, 
with  thick  brown  hair  drawn  back  into  a  queue,  as  all  gentle 
men  then  wore  it,  with  a  rosy  face  and  a  clear,  bright  eye  - 
a  strong,  a  healthy,  a  splendid-looking  man  in  his  uniform 
of  blue  and  buff,  an  epaulet  on  each  shoulder,  and,  in  his 
three-cornered  hat,  the  cockade  of  liberty.  And  the  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  Continental  Army  looked  upon  the 
army  of  which  he  had  assumed  command  and  determined  to 
make  soldiers  of  them  and  lead  them  on  to  final  victory. 


HOW  GEORGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON. 


MEDAL  PRESENTED   BY   CONGRESS  TO   WASHINGTON  AFTER  THE   EVACUATION   OF 
BOSTON    BY   THE   BRITISH. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


HOW  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  LOST  AND  WON. 

A  LTHOUGH  General  Washington  may  have  felt  what  is 
•*"*•  called  a  pardonable  pride  as  he  sat  upon  his  horse, 
under  the  spreading  branches  of  the  Cambridge  elm,  and  drew 
his  sword  as  "  General  and  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Forces 
of  the  Thirteen  United  Colonies,"  he  knew  that  he  had  no 
easy  task  before  him.  But  he  went  to  work  at  once,  as  he 
always  did  when  he  had  anything  to  do,  and  tried  to  make 
real  soldiers  of  the  farmers  and  fishermen  and  store  keepers 
and  working-men  who  made  up  the  Continental  Army.  So 
well  did  he  work,  and  so  closely  did  he  keep  the  British 


84 


HOW  GEORGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON, 


Army  shut  up  in  Boston,  that  King  George's  red-coats  were 
obliged  to  leave  the  city  -  -  evacuate  it,  is  the  military  word 
-and,  in  March,  1776,  Washington  was  in  possession  of 
the  town  in  which  the  British  had  declared  they  would 
crush  the  rebellion  and  conquer  the  rebels. 

This  was  Washington's  first  success,  and  it  showed  the 
world  that  the  Americans  "  meant  business,"  that  they  were 
not  to  be  easily  overcome  by  the  trained  soldiers  and  gener 
als  of  King  George,  and  that  the  Commander  of  the  Conti 
nental  Army  was  a  born  leader  of  men,  and  knew  how  to  go 
to  work  to  win. 

But  none  knew  better  than  did   that    Commander  how 


THE    BRITISH    EVACUATING    BOSTON. 


hard  the  winning  would  be.  His  troops  had  yet  to  meet 
the  British  soldiers  in  the  open  field  and,  after  the  evacua 
tion  of  Boston,  England  began  to  find  out  that  if  America 


HOW  GEORGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON. 


was  to  be  whipped  into  obedience,  there  must  be  plenty  of 
men  sent  over  to  do  the  whipping.  But  England  could 
not  spare  enough  of  her  own  soldiers,  and  so  she  tried  to 
hire  fighters  from  other  nations.  She  tried  to  hire  twenty 
thousand  Russian  soldiers,  but  failed;  then  she  tried  to  get 
some  from  Holland,  and  failed.  But,  at  last,  she  hired  from 
certain  states  of  Germany  called  the  Hesses,  first  eighteen 
thousand  men,  and  then  more  and  more,  until,  before  the 
Revolution  was  over,  nearly  thirty  thousand  of  these  hired 
soldiers,  or  mercenary  troops,  called 
"  Hessians,"  were  brought  over  the 
sea  to  fight,  in  the  armies  of  En 
gland,  the  freemen  of  America. 
Many  Englishmen  were  indignant 
at  this  hiring  of  foreign  soldiers  to 
shoot  down  their  relations  in  Amer 
ica,  and  you  may  be  sure  it  did 
not  increase  America's  love  for 
England. 

The  first  lot  of  Hessians  sailed  into  New  York  harbor  in 
August,  1776,  and  joined  the  army  of  Sir  William  Howe,  who 
thus  had  a  force  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  men  to  face  Wash 
ington's  poor  little  army  of  scarcely  ten  thousand  men.  The 
battle  that  had  to  follow  took  place  at  Brooklyn  on  Long 
Island,  on  the  twenty-seventh  of  August,  1776.  It  was,  of 
course,  a  total  defeat  for  the  Americans.  It  could  not  be 
otherwise.  And  when  Lord  Howe,  the  British  general,  had 


A    HESSIAN. 


86 


HOW  GEORGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON. 


defeated  the  Americans,  killed  a  great  many,  taken  a  great 
many  prisoners,  and  driven  the  rest  within  their  entrench 
ments  at  Brooklyn,  he  said :  "  To-morrow  evening  will  bring 
the  fleet  up  the  river  and,  with  an  army  on  one  side  of  the 


THE   COMING   OF  THE   HESSIANS. 


rebels  and  our  ships  on  the  other,  we  will  '  bag '  the  whole 
army  and  crush  the  rebellion." 

<^But  the  trouble  with  Lord  Howe,  as  with  the  other  Brit 
ish  generals,  was  that  he  did  not  understand  Washington. 
The  American  leader  expected  to  be  defeated.  He  knew 
that  his  troops  must  be  drilled  into  an  army  before  they 


HO IV  GEOJtGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON.  87 

could  successfully  face  the  soldiers  of  King  George,  and  it 
was  this  patient  courage  that  George  Washington  showed, 
in  the  midst  of  defeat  and  danger,  all  through  the  Revolution, 
that  was  one  of  the  things  that  made  him  great?  So,  while 
he  gathered  his  defeated  army  within  the  lines  at  Brooklyn, 
he  saw  through  Lord  Howe's  plan  to  capture  him,  and  with 
out  waiting  for  the  too-confident  British  general  to  try  his 
plan,  he  determined  to  save  his  army  by  a  retreat  to  New 
York.  It  was  a  dangerous  experiment.  If  the  British 
knew  that  he  was  trying  to  escape  them,  they  would  swarm 
down  upon  his  little  army  and  capture  or  destroy  it.  So  he 
went  to  work  carefully.  He  got  together  all  the  boats  he 
could,  marched  his  men  about,  as  if  he  meant  to  get  them 
ready  for  a  battle  the  next  day,  and  then,  silently  and  swiftly, 
got  them  down  to  the  river.  Here  the  boats,  w7ith  the  fish 
ermen  soldiers  of  a  Marblehead  regiment  at  the  oars,  were 
rowed  over  and  over  again  ;  the  fog  shut  them  out  from  view, 
and  before  morning  the  soldiers  were  all  ferried  over,  Wash 
ington  crossing  in  the  last  boat.  He  had  saved  his  army 
and  showed  the  thing  that  makes  a  great  general  -  -  know 
ing  how  to  retreat  as  well  as  how  to  fight.  For  a  successful 
retreat  is  sometimes  quite  as  much  a  victory  as  is  a  suc 
cessful  battle. 

It  was  much  the  same  with  what  follows.  By  this  time 
America  had  spoken.  The  thirteen  colonies,  through  their 
representatives  in  Congress,  had  declared  that  they  would 
no  longer  acknowledge  King  George  as  their  ruler,  nor  En- 


88 


HOW  GEORGE   WASHINGTON  LOST  AND   WON. 


gland  as  their  governing  power,  but  that  they  were,  "  and  of 
right  ought  to  be,  free  and  independent  states."  This  was 
done  in  a  paper  called  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
drawn  up  in  Independence  Hall  in  Philadelphia,  when  Con 
gress  was  in  session,  and  issued  on  the  fourth  of  July,  1776, 


THE    LAST    BOAT. 


( Washington  at  the  retreat  from  Brooklyn. ) 

a  little  over  a  month  before  the  disastrous  battle  of  Brooklyn. 
|  I  think  most  American  boys  and  girls  are  dissatisfied 
because  George  Washington  did  not  sign  the  Declaration 
of  Independence.  He  was  the  greatest  American;  that  was 
America's  greatest  deed.  Why  should  he  not  have  signed  it  ? 


HO  W  GEORGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON. 


89 


Of  course,  you  know  that  he 
was  with  the  army.  His  duty 
was  there  and  not  in  the  Con- 


INDEPENDENCE      HALL,    PHILADEL 
PHIA. 

(Where  the  Congress  met.} 


gress ;  for  when 
oftheContinen- 
his  seat  in  Con- 
knows  just  how 
bringing     Con- 
that  resulted  in 
dependence.  He 
argued  to  show 
could   not  longer 
be    independent, 


he  became  the  general 
tal  army  he  gave  up 
press.  But  no  one 

o 

much  he  did  toward 
gress    to    the    action 
the  Declaration  of  In- 
\vrote  and  talked  and 
the    men    in    Congress    that    the    colonies 
remain  subject  to  England.     They  must 
he  said.     And  though    George    Washing- 


HALLWAY. 


90  JJOIV  GEORGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON. 

ton's  name  is  not  signed  to  the  famous  Declaration,  he  had 
as  much  to  do  with  it  as  had  many  men  who  really  did 
sign  it. 

But  when  the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  been 
signed,  it  meant  that  it  must  be  backed  up  by  deeds.  So. 
though  the  battle  of  Brooklyn  was  a  defeat  followed  by  a 
retreat,  and  though  the  world  said  that  the  colonies  could 
never  secure  their  independence,  Washington  never  weak 
ened,  but  kept  on  struggling  and  striving,  though  defeats 
and  retreats  followed  one  another  until  any  but  the  most 
determined  leader  would  have  been  discouraged  and  felt  like 
giving  in. 

Washington  retreated  from  Brooklyn  to  New  York,  and 
when  the  British  followed  him  there,  he  retreated  across  the 
Harlem  into  Westchester  County.  Still  pressed  by  Howe, 
he  retreated  across  the  Hudson  into  New  Jersey,  and  finally 
across  the  Delaware  into  Pennsylvania,  with  Howe  still  fol 
lowing  him  up.  It  was  almost  like  a  game  of  checkers,  was 
it  not? 

His  army  now  consisted  of  but  three  thousand  men. 
His  soldiers  were  ragged,  his  equipment  poor,  his  situation 
desperate.  The  winter  was  a  hard  one,  and  so  nearly  lost 
seemed  the  cause  of  the  colonies,  that  new  soldiers  could 
not  be  induced  to  serve  in  the  army ;  all  this  time,  too,  the 
enemies  of  Washington --for  there  were  leading  men  in 
Congress  and  out  of  it  who  said  all  kinds  of  hard  things 
about  him,  and  tried  to  have  him  set  aside  in  favor  of  some 


HO  IV  GE  OR  GE   WASHING  TON  L  OST  AND   WON.  9 1 

general  whom,  they  declared,  was  more  of  a  fighter — were 
active  against  him. 

And  still  Washington  kept  silent.  He  was  biding  his 
time.  In  New  York,  Lord  Howe  said  that  the  end  was  near 
at  hand,  and  that  the  rebels  would  give  up  the  fight  before 
New  Year's  Day,  if  he  did  not  capture  them  before  that  time. 

And  then,  when  no  one  expected  it,  Washington  acted. 
He  had  determined  upon  a  bold  move.  This  was  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  an  attack  upon  the  Hessian  lines  at 
Trenton.  ffo.  ^A^O  JLc^J^f  &<  "&*** 

\He  made  all  his  preparations  secretly,  cautiously  and 
carefully.  He  was  to  cross  the  Delaware  from  the  Pennsyl 
vania  side  and,  if  possible,  take  the  Hessians  by  surprise. 
Other  soldiers  were  to  march  to  his  assistance  from  Phila 
delphia  and  from  Bristol,  and  cut  off  all  hope  of  escape. 
And  the  river  was  to  be  crossed  on  Christmas  night. "1 

It  was  anything  but  a  merry  Christmas  wheri,  with 
twenty-five  hundred  picked  men,  Washington  came  to  the 
banks  of  the  Delaware  and  tried  to  set  his  small  army 
across.  The  river  was  filled  with  great  cakes  of  floating  ice; 
it  was  so  coid  that  two  of  the  soldiers  were  frozen  to  death, 
and,  before  morning  came,  the  air  was  filled  with  icy  and 
cutting  sleet.  It  seemed  the  very  worst  time  to  attempt 
such  an  enterprise  as  Washington  had  determined  upon. 
So  bitter  was  the  night,  indeed,  that  the  other  generals  who 
had  been  ordered  to  march  to  his  support  gave  it  up,  because 
they  did  not  see  how  they  could  cross  the  icy  Delaware. 


92 


HO  W  GEORGE   WASHINGTON  LOST  AND   WON. 


\  But  Washington  crossed  the  Delaware.  And  at  eight 
o'clock  the  next  morning  his  ragged,  half-frozen  soldiers 
attacked  the  village  of  Trenton,  in  which  the  Hessians  were 
stationed.  He  drove  in  their  pickets,  surrounded  their  camp, 


WASHINGTON    CROSSING   THE   DELAWARE. 


fought  them  through  the  town,  killed  their  commanding  offi 
cer,  and  captured  nearly  all  of  them,  though  some  five 'hun 
dred  or  so  managed  to  get  away.  \ 

Then  with  his  thousand  prisoners,  Washington  re-crossed 
the  Delaware,  and  the  long  spell  of  failure  was  broken. 
The  brilliant  deed  he  had  done  paralyzed  the  over-confident 
British,  put  new  life  into  the  suffering  cause  of  liberty  and 
so  inspired  the  colonies  that,  where  men  had  been  unwilling 


HOW  GEORGE   WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON. 


93 


to  risk  their  lives  for  a  failing  cause,  they  were  now  ready  to     cj 
join  one   which   seemed    to   promise  success.     Washington  -7) 
had  saved  the  Revolution.     From  the  fight  at  Trenton  dated  ^      ^. 
the  steady  march  toward  victory.) 

That  sharp  and  successful  fight,  too,  showed  how  great  a 
general  was  Washing 
ton.  The  retreat  from 
Brooklyn  had  been  one 
proof  of  this ;  but  that 
was  a  retreat.  The  cap 
ture  of  the  Hessians  at 
Trenton  showed  him  to 
be  a  leader  who  could  at 
tempt  the  most  daring 
move,  and,  once  at- 


tempted,  could  push  it 
through  to  the  end, 
though  everything 
seemed  against  him. 

AThe    great    German 
solaier-kin      whom    his- 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON. 

(Painted  by   James    Peale,    ivken    \l~ashington   was    Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  army  :  now  in  Independence  Hall. 


tory  calls  Frederick  the 
Great,  when  he  heard 
how,  with  a  few  ragged  regiments  (so  footsore,  indeed,  that 
their  march  could  be  tracked  in  the  snow  by  the  blood  from 
their  unprotected  feet),  Washington  had  defeated  and  cap 
tured  the  European  soldiers  whose  business  was  fighting 


94  HOW  GEORGE    WASHINGTON  LOST  AND    WON. 

and  whose  equipment  was  perfect,  declared  that  Washington 
was  a  born  soldier  and  that  the  attack  at  Trenton  was  the 
most  brilliant  campaign  of  the  century. 

Washington  knew  when  to  strike,  and  then  he  struck. 
In  the  darkest  hour  of  the  Revolution  he  took  the  chance  of 
defeat  and  death,  and  by  a  movement  that  gave  his  name 
strength  and  showed  the  world  his  ability,  he  secured  a  vic 
tory  which,  because  of  its  daring,  its  brilliancy  and  its  com 
pleteness,  set  the  world  to  thinking  and  created  friends  and 
helpers  for  the  struggling  thirteen  colonies  along  the  Atlan 
tic  coast  of  North  America. 


HOW  ONE  MAN  DID   Jl'  ALL. 


9S 


CHAPTER   VII. 


HOW    ONE    MAN    DID    IT    ALL. 


_    OU    may  be   sure  that  when   the 
British  found  that  Washington 

o 

had  been  too  smart  for  them 
and,  just  when  they  thought  him 
weakest,  had  made  the  sudden 
and  successful  dash  on  the  Hes 
sian  camp  at  Trenton,  they  rubbed  their 
eyes  in  a  bewildered  sort  of  way  and 
set  their  red-coats  charging"  after  him. 
But  just  when  they  thought  him 
hemmed  in  between  them  and  the 
Delaware  river,  all  of  a  sudden  he  dis 
appeared.  In  the  morning  the  British 
found  the  burning  camp-fires  of  the 
Americans,  but  no  Americans.  Washington  had  slipped 
away  in  the  night  by  cross-roads  and  by-paths;  and,  before 
the  British  knew  what  he  was  about,  he  had  fallen  upon 
what  was  called  their  ''reserves"  -three  fine  regiments  at 
Princeton  —  and  had  driven  them  away  with  considerable 
loss. 


96 


HOW  ONE   MAN  DID   IT  ALL. 


You  see  what  a  perplexing  sort  of  a  foeman  this  George 
Washington  was.  The  British  never  knew  just  how  to  take 
him.  When 
they  expected 
him  to  fight, 
he  didn't; 
when  they  ex 
pected  him  to 
run  away,  he 
didn't;  and, 
when  they 
thought  they 
had  him  safe 
and  fast,  that 
was  just  the 
time  he  would 
slip  from  their 
grasp  or  fall 
upon  them  at 
some  unex 
pected  point 
and,  as  the 
saying  is, 

"whip  them  out  of  their  boots."  It  was  all  wrong;  it 
wasn't  at  all  the  thing  they  expected.  But  it  was  war,  and 
it  proved,  what  England  finally  found  out,  that  George 
Washington  was  a  great  general. 


WASHINGTON  AT  PRINCETON. 


IN   CAMP. — WASHINGTON    LISTENING   TO   THE   BUY    lltER. 


HO  W  ONE  MAN  DID   IT  ALL.  99 

As  a  great  general  is  a  great  leader,  and  as  the  leader, 
\vhether  in  statesmanship  or  in  sport,  in  business  or  in  school, 
as  boy  or  as  man,  is  the  one  whom  all  finally  look  to  when 
anything  is  to  be  done  that  requires  judgment,  courage,  cool 
ness  and  decision,  so  George  Washington,  growing  stronger 
and  greater  as  time  went  on  and  the  things  he  had  to  decide 
upon  or  to  do,  tried  and  developed  him,  became  the  one  man 
in  America  to  whom  all  America  looked  for  suggestion,  guid 
ance  and  decision.  In  other  words,  he  was  the  one  man  who 
did  it  all. 

He  planned  the  campaigns  that  gradually  led  to  victory ; 
he  insisted  on  having  an  army,  instead  of  Continental  militia 
men  who  only  joined  to  serve  as  soldiers  for  what  is  called  a 
brief  term  of  enlistment;  he  borrowed  money  himself  or  got 
rich  men  to  lend  it  to  the  feeble  colonies,  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  their  army ;  he  saw  ahead  the  plans  of  the  British,  felt 
certain  they  would  try  to  weaken  him  by  sending  armies  to 
attack  the  colonies  at  the  North  and  South,  and  he  so 
planned  things  that  the  enemy  was  whipped,  and  Burgoyne 
and  his  army  captured  at  Saratoga  in  New  York,  and  would 
have  been  beaten  back  at  Charleston  in  South  Carolina  if 
the  general  in  command  had  but  done  as  Washington  told 
him.  He  tried  to  have  Congress  do  something  more  than 
talk  and  run  away  from  the  British;  he  held  the  people 
together  by  his  firmness  and  his  courage  when  things  seemed 
all  going  the  wrong  way ;  he  kept  the  army  from  breaking 
up  altogether  when  Congress  would  not  send  the  soldiers 


HOW  ONE  MAN  DID   IT  ALL. 


money  to  pay  for  their  work  or  to  save  them  from  starving. 
It  was  his  advice  that  brought  about  the  "  alliance  "  with 
France,  as  it  was  called  ;  it  was  his  letters  to  Congress  that 
kept  that  body  from  doing  many  unwise  things,  and  things 
that  would  have  spoiled  all  that  he  had  undertaken  or  had 
done. 

All  this  would  have  turned  the  heads  of  smaller  men,  as 
it  turned  the  head  of  Napoleon  and  made  him  a  usurper  when 

he  should  have 
been  a  patriot.  But 
George  Washing 


ton  was  great  in 
every  way,  and 
thought  nothing  of 
personal  benefit  or 
what  he  could  make 
out  of  anything  for 
himself.  And  yet 
he  had  his  enemies. 
All  through  the 
dark  days  of  the 
war,  when  things 
seemed  to  go  so  slowly,  when  the  British  still  held  the  cities 
of  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  when  the  American  army 
was  shivering  in  Valley  Forge  or  changing  their  camps  in 
New  York  and  New  Jersey,  there  were  ambitious  men  in 
Congress,  and  jealous  men  in  the  army  who  tried  to  push 


AT    VALLEY    FORGK. 


HO  IV  ONE   MAN  DID  IT  ALL.  101 

Washington  from  his  position  of  command,  saying  that  he 
was  slow  and  did  not  know  how  to  do  things,  and  that  they 
or  their  favorite  generals,  if  they  could  but  have  the  chance, 
would  end  the  war  in  a  short  time. 

But  Washington  cared  no  more  for  them  and  their  doings 
than  if  they  had  been  flies  buzzing  about  him.  His  purpose 
was  to  defeat  the  British  and  establish  in  the  land  the  liberty 
that  had  been  declared  for  America  on  that  famous  fourth 
of  July  in  1776.  Nothing  could  turn  him  from  his  purpose; 
he  had  the  people  behind  him  ;  they  honored,  trusted  and 
loved  him  and,  with  enough  men  in  Congress  to  back  him 
up  and  try  to  give  him  what  he  must  have --men,  money 
and  guns — he  set  his  face  toward  success,  and  worked  stead 
ily  ahead. 

Through  danger  and  defeat,  through  suffering  and  loss, 
through  jealousy  and  treason  and  discouragements  on  every 
side,  Washington  kept  on  —  retreating,  advancing,  fighting. 
He  proved  to  the  world,  by  the  battle  of  Germantown,  that 
his  raw  fighters  were  becoming  real  soldiers.  He  showed 
that  he  knew  when  not  to  fight,  as  at  White  Marsh,  and 
how  to  turn  a  rout  into  a  victory  as  at  Monmouth.  He 
kept  a  lost  cause  alive  in  the  log  huts  of  the  winter  quarters 
at  Valley  Forge ;  he  bothered  the  British  and  kept  them  so 
uncertain  as  to  just  what  he  meant  to  do,  that  they  could  not 
send  troops  to  help  their  soldiers  who  had  marched  into  the 
northern  and  southern  country;  and  thus  he  made  the  battle 
of  Saratoga,  and  the  storming  of  Stony  Point,  and  the  fight 


102 


HO  IV  ONE  MAN  DID   IT  ALL. 


at  Bennington,  and  the  engagements  at  the  Cowpens  and 
and  Guilford  Court  House  and  Eutaw  Springs,  in  none  of 
which  Washington  took  part,  victories  that  hastened  the 
end. 

The  end  came  at  Yorktown  in  Virginia  on  the  nineteenth 
of  October,    1781.     What   that  end   was,  and  how  it   came 

about,  every  boy  and  girl 
in  America  who  reads  or 
studies  the  history  of  the 
land  knows.  Through  the 
efforts  of  Benjamin  Frank 
lin,  another  great  American, 
the  French  king  who  hated 
the  English  because  En 
gland  had  taken  Canada 
from  France,  sent  over  men 
and  ships  to  help  the  Ameri 
cans,  and  declared  that,  so 
far  as  France  was  concerned, 
it  recognized  the  rebellious 
colonists  of  America  as  a 

new  nation  in  the  world.  Sixteen  war-vessels  and  four 
thousand  men  came  across  the  water;  but,  as  Washington 
feared,  their  help  did  not  amount  to  so  much,  except  that 
it  frightened  the  British  and  made  them  think  that  all 
Europe  was  going  to  join  to  help  free  their  American 
"  rebels,"  as  they  kept  calling  the  revolted  colonies  —  what 


A   DASH  AT  MONMOUTH. 


HOW   ONE  MAN  DID  IT  ALL.  103 

boy  or  girl  knows  the  difference  between  a  revolution  and 
a  rebellion  ? 

jl^ ranee  did  help  the  United  States  very  much,  however, 
in  the  way  of  lending  money  and  supplies  for  carrying  on 
the  war;  and,  surely  no  one  in  America,  now  or  ever,  will 


CARVING   THE    HAM. —  HOW    MONEY   WAS    SMUGGLED   THROUGH   THE    BRITISH    LINES   TO   THE 

CAMP  AT   VALLEY   FORGE. 

forget  the  name  of  that  gallant  young  French  nobleman,  the 
Marquis  de  La  Fayette,  who,  when  scarcely  more  than  a 
boy,  hired  a  vessel  and  ran  away  to  America  to  help  fight 
for  its  freedom,  becoming  a  dear  friend  to  Washington,  a 
ready  helper,  a  cautious  leader  and  a  daring  soldier  of 
liberty. 


IO4 


HO  IV  ONE   MAN  DID   IT  ALL. 


But  in  the  summer  of   1780,  the  French  help  began  to 
amount    to    something.       Rochambeau    with    six    thousand 

Frenchmen  landed  at  New 
port  in  Rhode  Island,  and 
joined  Washington  and  his 
soldiers  at  Peekskill  in  New 
York.  In  1781,  the  Count 
de  Grasse  sailed  into  Chesa 
peake  Bay  with  more  ships 
and  soldiers ;  Washington 
and  Rochambeau  hurried  to 
Virginia  and,  almost  before 
the  British  knew  what  was 
happening,  Lord  Cornwallis 
and  a  British  army  of  nine 
thousand  men  were  penned 
up  in  Yorktown  in  Virginia. 
The  British  general  was 
brave  and  able ;  he  tried  to 
get  away,  but  could  not ; 
Washington  set  his  soldiers 
to  digging  earthworks,  and 
soon  had  the  British  camp 
surrounded,  and  after  three  weeks  of  firing  and  fighting,  the 
British  general  gave  in,  and  on  the  ninteenth  of  October, 
1781,  he  surrendered  to  General  Washington. 

This  ended  the  Revolution.     The  king  of  England  could 


BARTHOLDl'S    STATUE    OF    LAFAYETTE. 

(In  Madison  Square,  New    York.) 


v 


HO  IV  ONE  MAN  DID   IT  ALL,  107 

not  get  men  to  serve  in  America ;  the  people  and  parliament 
were  tired  of  war ;  the  Americans  were  really  taking  care  of 
themselves  and  had  done  so  for  five  years  ;  they  were  deter 
mined  not  to  give  in ;  France  and  other  nations  had  helped,  or 
were  ready  to  help  them,  and  so,  on  the  thirtieth  of  November, 
1782,  Great  Britain  acknowledged  the  in 
dependence  of  the  United  States;  on  the 
third  of  September,  1783,  the  paper  that 
did  this,  and  was  called  a  treaty  of  peace 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  of  America,  was  signed  at  Versail 
les  in  France,  and  on  the  twenty-fifth  of 
November,  1783,  the  last  red-coated  soldiers  of  the  king  left 
the  country  they  had  failed  to  conquer,  and  America  was 
free. 

And  who  do  you  think  could  have  felt  more  thankful  or 
more  joyful  over  the  way  things  had  turned  out  than  George 
Washington  ?  Although  many  things  had  not  gone  as  he 
desired,  still  the  end  he  had  worked  for  had  come  about,  and 
America  was  free.  He  thanked  the  French  who  had  helped 
him,  he  wrote  to  Congress  congratulating  the  country  on 
the  success  that  had  come  at  the  ending  of  seven  years  of 
war,  and  set  about  trying  to  so  finish  things  up  as  to  avoid 
the  troubles  that  he  felt  must  come  if  everything  was  not 
done  "  decently  and  in  order."  To  get  the  very  thing  we 
want  is  sometimes  the  worst  thing  for  us,  and  the  results  of 
victory  have  often  been  the  most  serious  problem  for  men  to 


io8 


HO  IV  ONE  MAN  DID   IT  ALL. 


face.  For  it  is  hard  to  be  modest  and  patient  and  obliging 
when  we  have,  at  last,  obtained  what  we  have  worked  and 
fought  for.  America's  most  serious  problem  was  now  to  come, 
and  none  knew  this  better  than  did  George  Washington  — 
the  man  whose  hand  and  head  had  made  his  country  free. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


WHY   THE    GENERAL    LOST    HIS    TEMPER. 


HAVE  said  that  although  the  war  ended  with 
the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown, 
none  knew  better  than  did  Washington,  that 
the  trouble  was  by  no  means  over.  He  un 
derstood,  indeed,  what  many  could  not  see, 
that  one  struggle  could  only  lead  to  another, 
and  that  peace  with  England  did  not  mean 
peace  in  America,  so  long  as  things  remained 
unsettled  and  uncertain. 

You  remember,  of  course,  the  fable  of  the  frogs  who  over 
threw  King  Log  only  to  get  in  his  place  King  Stork,  a 
much  worse  tyrant.  America  had  achieved  independence; 
she  was  a  free  nation;  but  you  must  remember  she  was  made 
up  of  thirteen  states,' which, -as- colonies,- we  re  selfish,  and 


WHY  THE    GENERAL    LOST  HIS    TEMPER.  109 

which,  as  states,  were  also  selfish.  To  be  sure,  the  common 
danger  of  war,  and  a  common  dislike  of  England,  had  bound 
them  together,  so  that  they  were  not  so  entirely  wrapt  up  in 
their  own  affairs  or  so  jealous  of  one  another  as  they  had 
been  when  they  were  simply  English  colonies,  but  they  were 
all  of  them,  as  we  say,  "  looking  out  for  number  one;  "  they 
were  governing  themselves  as  separate  states,  without  re 
gard  to  Congress  and,  in  fact,  all  that  Congress  could  do  was 
just  to  carry  on  the  war  and  look  after  the  matters  that  the 
war  created  for  all  the  states. 

This  looking  out  for  "  number  one "  made  the  states 
careless  as  to  the  matters  which  they  thought  belonged  to 
Congress  to  attend  to,  while  it  made  Congress  careless  and 
"  touchy,"  according  as  they  were  left  alone  or  interfered  with 
by  the  several  state  governments. 

In  no  way  was  this  carelessness  more  unfortunately 
shown  than  in  the  treatment  of  the  soldiers.  They  were  the 
men  who  had  struggled  and  suffered  and  starved  that  Amer 
ica  might  be  free.  You  would  think  that  Congress  would 
look  after  them  with  especial  care,  and  see  that  they  had  good 
food  and  warm  clothes,  and  money  to  send  home  to  their 
wives  and  children.  But  Congress  did  not,  and  almost  one 
half  of  Washington's  time  seems  to  have  been  spent  in  writ 
ing  to  Congress,  pleading  the  cause  of  the  neglected  soldiers 
whom,  from  raw  and  undisciplined  recruits,  he  had  drilled 
and  made  into  victorious  fighters. 
^  Well,  Yorktown  came,  and  the  war  was  over.  Congress 


no 


WHY  THE    GENERAL   LOST  HIS    TEMPER. 


and  the  people  threw  up  their  hats  and  hurrahed  and 
shouted  Victory  !  and  Hallelujah  !  But  that  did  not  pay  the 
soldiers. 

Of  course^you  may  askL_wh^how  could  Congress  pay 
soldiers  if  it  had  no  money  and  no  power  to  make  the 
states  pay  up.  That  is  true,  but  it 
should  have  so  worked  as  to  compel  the 
states  to  pay  their  shares  of  money  due 
the  soldiers,  or  borrowed  enough  from 
foreign  nations  or  wealthy  men  to  keep 
its  promises  to  Washington  and  his 
men.  But  it  did  not,  and  the  soldiers 
grewr  more  and  more  angry,  and  begun 
at  last  to  say  that  if  Congress  had  not 
power  enough  nor  strength  enough  to 
keep  its  promises  to  the  soldiers  who  had  fought  its  bat 
tles,  then  Congress  was  "  no  good,"  and  the  best  thing  for 
America  was  to  have  a  government  in  which  one  man 
should  have  the  "  say,"  and  see  to  it  that  what  the  soldiers 
had  done  they  should  be  paid  for. 

Now,  here  was  just  where  one  of  the  things  that  made 
up  the  greatness  of  Washington  was  shown.  He  knew  just 
how  the  soldiers  felt;  he  could  not  blame  them  for  being 
angry  ;  he,  himself,  was  angry  over  the  delay  and  indifference 
of  Congress  and  the  state  governments.  The  soldiers  loved 
him ;  they  looked  up  to  him,  and  were  always  ready  to  obey 
him,  going  where  he  sent  them  and  doing  what  he  told  them. 


"  MAL.    ANTHONY  "    WAYNE. 

(One  of  Washington's  bravest 
Generals. ) 


WHY  THE   GENERAL   LOST  HIS   TEMPER.  in 

The  army  was  a  power  in  the  land.  Had  it  wished,  it  could 
have  said  to  Congress  :  "  Get  out ;  go  home  !  we  have  con 
quered  England;  we  have  freed  America;  we  will  put  some 
one  in  to  '  run  '  this  country  better  than  you  can  do,"  and 
Congress  could  not  have  stopped  them.  All  they  needed 
was  a  leader.  Had  George  Washington  been  the  kind  of 
man  of  whom  you  may  read  in  Roman  history,  of  whom  the 
soldiers  made  emperors  and  the  people  first  obeyed  and  then 
murdered,  he  need  only  have  said  to  the  soldiers :  "  You  are 
right.  I  will  lead  you,  and  we  will  soon  settle  things ;  "  and 
he  could  have  been,  as  was  Caesar,  as  was  Cromwell,  as  was 
Napoleon,  under  almost  the  same  circumstances,  first,  leader, 
then  dictator,  then  king./  ^  ^J^^ 

But  George  Washington  was  not  that  kind  of  a  man.  ^ 
He  was  truly  great.  As  a  result  of  all  this  murmuring  and 
fault-finding  and  grumbling  and  threatening,  the  soldiers  did 
try  to  do  something  desperate.  Through  one  of  their  gener 
al's  trusted  officers,  they  sent  him  a  letter  saying  just  what 
I  have  told  you  they  thought  —  that  Congress  was  a  failure; 
that  the  army  had  whipped  England  and  won  independence 
for  America  ;  that  England's  government  was,  after  all,  more 
strong  and  safe  than  could  be  this  jumble  of  thirteen  sepa 
rate  states  ;  that  some  such  government,  like  that  of  England, 
would  be  best  for  America;  that  such  a  government  needed 
a  head,  who  might  be  called  a  protector,  dictator  or  king; 
that  there  was  only  one  man  in  America  worthy  to  fill  such  a 
position  ;  and  they  hinted  (though  the  letter  did  not  say  this 


ii2  WHY  THE    GENERAL  LOST  HIS   TEMPER. 

in  so  many  words,  it  meant  it  all  the  same)  would  General 
Washington  take  control  of  the  government  of  America  by 
the  help  of  the  army,  and  be  crowned  king  of  America? 

Then,  for  once  in  his  life,  George  Washington  was  angry. 
There  had  been  other  times  when  he  let  his  "  angry  passions 
rise,"  but  they  were  not  numerous.  Washington  was  natur 
ally  a  quick-tempered  man,  one  who,  if  he  did  not  watch  over 
himself,  would  "  get  mad  "  easy.  But,  in  his  early  days,  he 
had  learned  the  first  step  toward  greatness ;  he  had  learned 
to  conquer  himself,  and  no  man  ever  tried  harder  and  suc 
ceeded  better  than  he  to  live  up  to  the  old  saying  we  read  in 
the  Bible :  "  He  that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the 
mighty ;  and  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit,  than  he  that  taketh  a 
city."  But  he  would  get  angry  sometimes,  and  there  were 
two  things  he  could  never  stand  —  treachery  and  cowardice. 
He  was  always  enraged  if  men  turned  and  ran  in  battle. 
That  was  what  made  him  swear  at  General  Lee  at  Mon- 
mouth,  and  beat  the  cowards  with  his  sword  at  Kip's  Bay. 
He  never  could  understand  how  a  man  could  be  a  coward, 
and  it  was  the  one  thing  with  which  he  had  no  patience. 

And  treachery,  as  I  have  said,  was  another.  He  never 
could  understand  how  a  man  who  had  sworn  to  be  true  to 
the  cause  he  had  joined,  could  do  or  say  anything  that 
should  be  disloyal  to  that  cause.  That  is  why  he  was  so 
broken  by  Arnold's  treason  and  why  he  was  so  stern  with 
Andre  and  determined  that  he  should  die. 

So  when  this  letter  from  the  soldiers  came  to  him,  asking 


THE   GKNERAL    LOSES    HIS    TEMPER. 

( Washington  refuses  a  crown. ) 


WHY  THE    GENERAL   LOST  HIS   TEMPER.  115 

him  to  be  king,  he  was  very  angry.  Even  to  think  of  such 
a  thing  was  treachery  to  the  cause  of  liberty ;  to  say  it,  was 
open  treason.  He  had  pledged  his  life  for  the  freedom  of 
America,  and  now  to  be  asked  to  himself  be  the  tyrant  he 
had  overthrown,  and  rule  as  king,  made  him  very  angry. 
"Be  assured,  sir,"  he  wrote  in  reply,  "no  occurrence  in  the 
course  of  the  war  has  given  me  more  painful  sensations 
than  your  information  of  there  being  such  ideas  existing  in 
the  army  as  you  have  expressed,  and  which  I  must  view 
with  abhorrence  and  reprimand  with  severity.  ...  I  am  at 
a  loss  to  conceive  what  part  of  my  conduct  could  have  given 
encouragement  to  an  address  which  to  me  seems  big  with 
the  greatest  mischief  that  can  befall  any  country.  .  .  .  Let 
me  conjure  you,  if  you  have  any  regard  for  your  country, 
concern  for  yourself  or  posterity,  or  respect  for  me,  to  ban 
ish  these  thoughts  from  your  mind,  and  never  communicate, 
as  from  yourself  or  any  one  else,  a  sentiment  of  the  like 
nature." 

To  me,  boys  and  girls,  this  is  one  of  the  noblest  moments 
in  the  life  of  George  Washington.  People  who  have  writ 
ten  all  about  him  do  not  seem  to  give  it  much  attention;  but, 
when  I  read  the  history  of  the  world,  and  see  how  many 
great  men  have  fallen  into  temptation  at  just  such  moments 
as  this  that  Washington  faced,  when  I  see  how  they  were 
unable  to  put  aside  the  dream  of  power,  the  chance  of  glory, 
the  opportunity  to  wear  the  crown  and  be  king  of  the  land 
in  which  they  lived,  I  believe  that  no  mightier,  nobler,  or 


n6 


WHY  THE    GENERAL   LOST  HIS    TEMPER. 


grander  man  ever  lived  than  George  Washington.  For  he, 
who  had  the  power  to  say  yes,  was  strong  enough  to  say  no ; 
he  was  true  enough  and  noble  enough  to  be  angry  that  any 
thing  of  the  sort  should  have  been  said  to  him.  You  may  be 
sure  no  one  ever  again  suggested  to  Washington  the  idea  of 
being  king  of  America. 

And  when,  a  little  later,  the  soldiers  still  called  loudly  for 
their  pay,  and  threatened  to  march  against  Congress  and  force 
it  to  pay  what  was  due,  Washington  saw  that  here  was  a  real 
danger,  and  quieted  it  as  no  other  man  could.  Instead  of 
scolding,  as  he  might,  or  of  heading  his  discontented  sol 
diers,  he  asked  them  to  meet  him  ;  and  then  he  read  to  them 

a  speech  that  calmed 
them,  and  changed  their 
passion  into  patience. 

At  last  the  day  came 

• 
for   the    breaking    up    of 

TU 
the  army.      1  he  war  was 

over,  the  British  had  gone, 
the  trouble  between  the 
army  and  Congress,  thanks  to  Washington's  exertions, 
had  been  fixed  up,  and  now  the  general  must  say  good 
bye  to  the  brave  men  who  had  fought  by  his  side,  and  been 
his  faithful  officers  through  all  the  years  of  war. 

It  was  in  New  York  City,  and  in  a  famous  hotel  called 
Fraunces'  Tavern,  that  he  bade  them  good  bye,  giving  to 
one  a  kiss,  to  another  an  embrace,  and  to  all,  the  warm  hand- 


"  HE   CHANGED  THEIR    PASSION    INTO    PATIENCE." 


WHY  THE    GENERAL   LOST  HIS   TEMPER.  119 

shake  that  told  of  love  and  loyalty  and  tender  feeling.  Not 
a  word  was  spoken.  Then,  still  silent  and  sorrowful,  his 
soldiers  conducted  him  to  the  water-side.  Washington  step 
ped  into  the  boat  to  be  rowed  across  to  the  New  Jersey  shore ; 
he  waved  his  hat  in  farewell  to  his  companions  of  so  many 
fields,  and  the  general  they  so  loved  left  them  forever. 

Then  he  went  to  Annapolis  where  Congress  was  in  ses 
sion.  Before  the  assembled  body  which  represented  the 
newly-made  United  States  of  America  he  stood,  while  all 
men  looked  upon  him  in  reverence  and  respect,  and  in  a 
short  address  resigned  his  commission  as  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  the  American  army. 

(  Then  he  went  to  his  dearly  loved  home  at  Mount  Ver- 
non.  He  was  a  simple,  private  citizen  now.  He  reached 
home  on  Christmas  eve,  and  you  may  be  sure  that  he  had, 


HO  W   WASHINGTON   WISHED   TO  BE  A   FARMER. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


HOW  WASHINGTON  WISHED  TO  BE  A  FARMER 
AND  COULDN'T. 


\\  WASHINGTON  was  like  a  boy  just  going  into  vaca- 
*  *  tion  time  when  he  got  back  to  Mount  Vernon.  A 
great  load  had  been  lifted  from  his  shoulders.  For  seven 
years  he  had  borne  a  strain  that  few  men  could  have  stood 
so  long,  and  that  few  could  have  stood  at  all.  Now  the 
burden  was  removed  and  he  could  think  of  his  farm  and  his 
servants  and  his  home  matters,  without  feeling  that  he  must 
sit  down  to  plan  a  battle,  or  wrestle  with  Congress,  or  con 
sult  with  his  generals  over  some  important  scheme. 

For  a  while  he  would  wake  up  each  morning,  almost 
with  a  feeling  of  surprise  that  he  had  no  grave  or  important 
business  to  attend  to  that  day  and  that,  as  he  expressed  it, 
he  was  "  no  longer  a  public  man,  nor  had  anything  to  do 
with  public  transactions." 

When  he  first  returned  to  Mount  Vernon  at  Christmas 
time  he  was  almost  "  snowed  under,"  so  severe  was  the 
winter.  But  as  the  roads  became  clear,  visitors  flocked  to 
Mount  Vernon  to  see  and  talk  with  the  man  who  had  rode 
away  from  it  one  fine  morning  as  just  Colonel  Washington, 
and  had  returned  to  it  seven  years  later  General  George 


HOW    WASHINGTON   WISHED    TO   BE  A   FARMER.  121 

Washington,  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the  world's  great 
men. 

For,  try  as  hard  as  he  might,  he  could  not  help  being 
what  he  said  he  was  not --"a  public  man."  He  was  the 
best-known  American.  He  was  the  one  whose  advice  was 
most  widely  sought  and  most,  generally  followed.  Letters 
came  to  him  from  all  over  the  world  and  were  about  all 
sorts  of  things,  from  an  invitation  to  visit  the  king  and 
queen  of  France,  and  a  plan  for  civilizing  the  Indians,  to  a 
request  to  sit  for  his  portrait  and  permission  to  call  a  child 
after  his  name.  To  all  these  letters,  to  the  management  of 
his  large  plantation  and  to  the  development  of  his  western 
lands,  Washington  tried  to  give  his  attention  ;  so,  what  with 
these  things  and  receiving  his  visitors,  he  did  not  have  much 
spare  time. 

Mingled  with  these  was  his  interest  in  even  greater  mat 
ters.  George  Washington  had  gone  to  the  wars  a  Vir 
ginian ;  he  had  come  home  an  American.  Do  you  realize 
what  that  meant  ?  It  meant  that  he  loved  his  own  State, 
but  that  he  loved  his  country  still  more.  He  was  almost 
the  first  American  to  have  this  broader  understanding  of 

o 

things  and  to  foresee  the  wonderful  future  of  the  new 
nation.  But,  to  be  a  nation,  he  knew  that  two  things  were 
necessary  for  these  United  States-- union  and  protection. 
The  first  could  never  come  about  if  the  thirteen  states  kept 
on  being  selfish,  thinking  only  of  their  own  interests,  "  pull 
ing  and  hauling  "  in  different  directions  ;  the  second  could 


122 


HOW   WASHINGTON   WISHED   TO  BE   A  FARMER. 


only  be  secured  by  a  system  of  forts  and  military  organiza 
tion  in  charge  of  Congress,  and  by  a  watchful  care  over  the 
Western  border-land. 

You  must   remember  that  when  the  Revolution  closed, 


BUILDING   A   PALISADED  TOWN    ON   THE  WESTERN    BORDER. 

two  foreign  powers  claimed  possession  of  vast  sections  of 
what  is  now  the  United  States.  These  were  England  and 
Spain.  Washington  knew  that  these  two  great  nations 
could  keep  the  United  States  from  making  the  most  of  its 


HOW    WASHINGTON   WISHED    TO  BE   A   FARMER.  123 

Western  country  and  could  control  the  navigation  of  the 
Mississippi  River,  unless  the  States  were  united  in  protect 
ing  and  enlarging  the  western  border.  So,  before  he  had 
been  many  days  at  home,  "  farming"  at  Mount  Vernon,  he 
began  writing  to  prominent  men  in  different  sections  of  the 
country  telling  them  how  he  felt  about  these  things  and 
what  he  thought  the  States  should  do.  "  But  they  cannot  do 
anything  that  will  last,"  he  said,  "  unless  they  agree  to  live 
together  under  some  plan  of  union,  by  which  they  can  all 
join  hands  to  pull  together  for  the  good  of  all,  and  to 
appoint  certain  men  who  should  represent  them  in  the  coun 
cils  of  the  new  nation  and  some  one  man  to  be  its  head  and 
its  guiding  hand." 

Even  before  Washington  left  the  army,  at  the  close  of 
the  war,  he  had  seen  what  was  needed  and  had  written  to 
the  governors  of  the  different  States  a  strong  letter  begging 
them  to  do  something  toward  establishing  a  union  of  all  the 
States  under  a  central  government  and,  what  he  called,  "a 
federal  head."  He  said  the  same  thing  to  his  soldiers  when 
he  bade  them  farewell,  and  so  it  was  known  pretty  generally 
throughout  the  land  what  Washington's  ideas  were,  and 
people  had  a  way  of  saying:  If  General  Washington  thinks 
it  is  best,  then  it  is  best!  " 

So,  when,  from  his  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  where  he 
had  thought  all  he  had  to  do  was  to  attend  to  his  own 
affairs  and  "  run  his  farm,"  he  began  to  write  letters  to  lead 
ing  men,  trying  to  get  them  to  do  something,  it  was  seen 


124 


NOW    WASHINGTON   WISHED    TO   BE  A   FARMER. 


that  his  way  was  wise  and  that  his  advice  should  be  taken. 
One  by  one  the  different  States  agreed  to  meet  and  talk 
things  over.  So,  after  trying  to  do  this  at  Annapolis  in 
Maryland  in  1786,  and  failing,  they  met  at  last  at  Phila 
delphia  in  May,  1787,  in  what  is  known  as  the  Federal  Con 
vention.  There,  they  went  to  work  to  get  up  some  sort  of  an 

agreement  by  which  the  thirteen 
States,  and  the  new  ones  that 
might  be  made  later,  could  live  in 
peaceful  union  and  work  together 
for  the  prosperity  and  welfare  of 
the  new  nation  whose  freedom 
had  been  obtained  after  so  much 
struggle  and  privation  and  danger 
and  death. 

It  was  quite  natural  that  Wash 
ington  should  be  the  leading  man 
in  this  Convention.  The"  coming 
together "  —  for  that  was  what 
"  convention  "  meant  -  -  was  largely 
his  idea  and  when  he  came  to  it  as  delegate  from  Virginia 
he  was  elected  to  be  its  presiding  officer. 

Of  course  you  are  not  to  imagine  that  there  were  no 
other  great  men  in  America.  It  would  be  very  wrong  for 
me  to  so  write  this  story  of  our  great  man  as  to  lead  you  to 
think  that  he  was  the  only  one.  It  was  the  time  of  great 
men.  There  were  Benjamin  Franklin  of  Pennsylvania,  who 


"IF  GIN'RAL  WASHINGTON  SAYS  IT  is 

BEST,    IT    IS   BEST  !  " 


A  GROUP  OF  GREAT  AMERICANS. 

(I.    Tnomas  Jtftrson.     2.   Alexander  Hamilton.     3.  John  Adams.     4-   George   Washington. 
5.   Benjamin  Franklin.     6.   Samuel  Adams.) 


HOW   WASHINGTON   WISHED    TO  BE  A   FARMER.  127 

was  as  wise  as  he  was  great,  and  John  Adams  and  his 
cousin  Samuel,  from  Massachusetts,  great  men,  both,  and 
foremost  in  putting  the  new  nation  of  the  United  States  on 
the  right  track;  there  were  Alexander  Hamilton  of  New 
York,  Washington's  right-hand  man  for  so  many  years,  and 
Thomas  Jefferson  of  Virginia,  Hamilton's  great  rival,  and, 
later  on,  President  of  the  United  States  ;  and  there  were 
others  whose  hearts  were  warm  for  liberty  through  the 
struggle  with  England  and  whose  brains  were  busy  in  try 
ing  to  think  out  and  plan  out  just  the  right  future  for  the 
nation  they  had  helped  to  make.  These  all  were  great  men ; 
but  George  Washington  was  the  greatest. 

The  American  people  believed  in  him ;  they  felt  that  he 
was  honest,  pure,  and  strong  and  that  whatever  he  wished 
to  do  or  whatever  he  tried  to  bring  about  would  be  best  for 
the  country  and  for  them. 

So,  when  he  was  made  president  of  the  convention  that 
was  to  arrange  for  some  sort  of  a  compact  by  which  the 
United  States  could  be  joined  together  and  under  which 
they  could  live,  everyone  felt  that  it  was  the  right  thing  to 
do,  and  waited  for  the  result. 

You  know  what  the  result  was --the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  You  know,  because  you  study  it  at  school, 
how  it  commences  :  "  We,  the  People  of  the  United  States, 
in  order  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union,  establish  Justice, 
insure  domestic  Tranquility,  provide  for  the  common  de 
fence,  promote  the  general  Welfare,  and  secure  the  Blessings 


128  HO  IV    WASHINGTON   WISHED    TO   BE   A   FARMER. 

of  Liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  Posterity,  do  ordain  and 
establish  this  Constitution  for  the  United  States  of  America." 

The  "  people  of  the  United  States  "  did  not  all  of  them 
like  the  constitution  that  their  convention  agreed  upon  ;  it 
was  a  long  time  before  all  the  States  decided  to  accept  it, 
but  they  did,  finally,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  George 
Washington's  name  signed  to  the  document  —  the  first  of 
all  the  names  signed  to  it  —  did  much  to  bring  people  to 
believe  in  it  as  the  best  paper  that  could  be  made  saying 
just  how  the  United  States  should  be  governed. 

It  is  said  that  when  Washington  took  his  pen  to 
sign  the  Constitution  he  said,  thoughtfully  and  solemnly: 
"  Should  the  States  reject  this  excellent  Constitution,  the 
probability  is  that  an  opportunity  will  never  again  be  offered 
to  cancel  another  in  peace  ;  the  next  will  be  drawn  in  blood  " 
-all  of  which  means  that  Washington  felt  that  this  was  a 
most  important  moment  in  the  history  of  the  United  States ; 
that  the  Constitution  he  was  about  to  sign  was  the  very 
best  thing  that  the  very  best  men  of  America  could  agree  upon ; 
he  was  certain  that,  should  the  people  of  the  several  States 
say  they  did  not  like  it  and  would  not  have  it,  no  one  could 
agree  upon  anything ;  then  quarreling  and  strife  would 
follow ;  all  that  the  Americans  had  fought  for  in  the  revolu 
tion  would  be  lost  and  the  people,  unable  to  govern  them 
selves,  would  fall  to  fighting  to  see  who  should  govern, 
until,  perhaps,  in  the  end,  they  would  be  worse  off  than  when 
they  revolted  from  King  George  of  England. 


HO  W    WASHINGTON    WISHED    TO   BE  A   FARMER. 


But  none  of  these  dreadful  things  was  to  happen,  be 
cause  the  people  had  faith  in  the  men  they  had  sent  to  the 
Convention  to  think  and  act  for  them;  especially  did  they 
have  faith  in  the  man  who  sat  in  the  highest  seat  as  presi 
dent  of  that  Convention  and  whose  bold  and  handsome  sig 
nature,  which  every  boy  and  girl  now  knows  and  honors,  was 
signed  to  the  new  Constitution,  as  much  as  to  say  :  "  I  believe 
that  this  Constitution  is  the  best  we  can  make  as  things  now 
stand,  and  I  sign  it,  not  only  as  president  of  the  Convention 
that  has  drawn  it,  but  as  one  of 
the  people  of  these  United  States 
of  America  which  it  seeks  to 
unite  in  peace  and  brotherhood." 

So  it  was,  at  last,  accepted 
and  adopted  by  all  the  people  of 
the  thirteen  States.  And,  with 

a  few  Changes,  Called  amendments,         INKSTAND  FROM  WHICH  WASHINGTON 

.  _,      ,  .  .  j  ,      .,  ,  SIGNED    THE   CONSTITUTION. 

so  it  has  continued ;  and  it  stands 

to-day  the  bond  of  union  between  all  the  States  of  this  great 
country  and  one  of  the  most  remarkable  papers  ever  written 
through  all  the  years  of  the  world's  long  history. 

The  first  section  of  the  second  article  read:  "The 
executive  power  shall  be  vested  in  a  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America.  He  shall  hold  office  during  the 
term  of  four  years,  and,  together  with  the  Vice-President, 
chosen  for  the  same  term,  be  elected  as  follows  "  -and  then 
it  goes  on  to  say  just  how  he  shall  be  chosen. 


132  HO IV   WASHINGTON    WISHED    TO  BE  A   FARMER. 

Well,  when  it  came  to  the  point  of  choosing  the  man 
who  must  stand  at  the  head  of  the  new  government  as  its 
manager,  or  "  executive,"  there  was  but  one  opinion  among 
the  people.  You  know,  of  course,  what  this  was: --that 
George  Washington,  of  Virginia,  was  the  one  man  in 
America  who  ought  to  be  and  must  be  and  should  be  the 
president  of  the  United  States.  This  was  what  everyone 
said,  thus  his  friends  wrote  him  and  the  man  who  drafted 
the  most  of  the  new  Constitution  and  who  has  been  called  its 
"father  "(I  mean  Alexander  Hamilton)  told  him  that  this 
would  have  to  be  and  that  it  was  his  duty  to  "  comply  with 
the  general  call  "  of  his  country. 

As  I  have  told  you  before,  George  Washington  never 
"  shirked,"  Whatever  he  felt  to  be  his  duty  he  set  about 
doing,  no  matter  how  hard  or  how  unpleasant  it  might  be. 
And  it  is  also  true  that  whatever  office  was  tendered  him  he 
accepted,  because  he  thought  it  was  his  duty  to  do  so,  even 
while  he  did  not  feel  himself  smart  enough  for  the  place. 
This  was  true  about  almost  every  position  he  accepted,  from 
the  days  when,  as  a  boy,  he  went  off  with  rifle,  rod  and  chain 
to  survey  Lord  Fairfax's  wild  lands  among  the  Virginia 
mountains. 

So  when  people  told  him  he  was  the  only  man  to  be 
president,  he  was  not  at  all  anxious  to  have  things  so  turn 
out  as  to  put  him  into  the  presidential  chair,  nor  was  he 
pleased  at  the  prospect.  He  was  fifty-seven  years  old,  just 
the  age  when  a  man  feels  like  settling  down  and  taking 


THE   FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT. 


133 


things  comfortably,  especially  if  his  life  had  been  as  busy 
and  as  active  as  Washington's  had  been.  "  Let  those  who 
wish  such  things  as  office  or  leadership  be  at  the  head  of 
things,"  he  said  ;  "  I  do  not  wish  them.  All  I  desire  now  is 
to  settle  down  at  Mount  Vernon  and  live  and  die  an  honest 
man  on  my  own  farm." 

But  this  quiet  life  was  not  to  be  his.  Much  as  he  wished 
to  spend  the  rest  of  his  days  as  a  plain  Virginia  farmer,  the 
people  whom  he  had  led  to  freedom  and  citizenship  decided 
otherwise.  When,  therefore,  according  to  the  Constitution, 
the  sixty-nine  votes  ot  the  electors  lor  president  were  opened 
and  counted,  it  was'Tound  that  every  one  of  them --sixty-  r/ 
nine  in  all --named  as  choice  of  the  people  for  president  of 
the  United  States  of  America,  George  Washington  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  the  farming  at  Mount  Vernon  had  to  be  given  up 
once  more. 


CHAPTER  X. 


THE    FIRST   AMERICAN 


T  SUPPOSE  there  is  not  a  boy  or  a  girl  who  has  any  sort 
-*•  of  "  spunk  "  or  ambition  but  enjoys  being  at  the  head  of 
things.  It  may  cost  hard  work  to  get  there,  and  may  need 
hard  work  to  hold  the  place,  but,  all  the  same,  the  boy  or  girl 
who  is  at  the  head  is  proud  of  it,  and  tries  to  stay  there. 


134  THE   FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT. 

It  is  so  with  men  and  women,  too,  and  the  real  test  of  a 
man's  ability,  courage  and  good  sense  comes  when  the  high 
position  he  has  attained  demands  certain  duties  of  him 
which  he  must  try  to  do  as  well  as  he  knows  how. 

George  Washington,  as  we  have  seen,  would  have  pre 
ferred  the  easier  life  of  a  Virginia  farmer;  but,  even  though 
he  said  to  his  friends :  "  I  don't  wish  to  be  President ;  I  don't 
want  the  office ;  I  shall  be  sorry  if  I  am  elected  and  have  to 
give  up  my  home  for  public  life  again"  — still  there  is  no 
doubt  he  felt  pleased  to  think  that  he  was  so  highly  honored ; 
and,  although  he  accepted  the  office  of  President,  as  he  him 
self  said,  "  with  more  diffidence  and  reluctance  than  ever  I 
experienced  before  in  my  life,"  he  accepted  the  office  with  the 
determination  to  do  his  duty,  no  matter  how  hard  might  be 
the  work  he  had  undertaken.  He  knew  that  he  had  the 
people  at  his  back.  He  knew  that  they  believed  in  him,  and 
so,  leaving  Mount  Vernon,  he  rode  on  toward  New  York 
City,  then  the  capital  of  the  new  nation. 

Every  mile  of  the  \vay  must  have  made  Washington  feel 
more  ready  to  enter  upon  his  high  position.  For  all  along 
the  route,  bells  rang,  drums  beat,  soldiers  and  citizens  turned 
out,  and  boys  and  girls  met  him  with  songs  and  flowers  and 
smiles  and  ringing  cheers.  And  yet,  though  this  reception 
made  the  American  hero  gratified  and  glad,  it  made  him  also 
sad  and  sober ;  for  he  saw,  better  than  any  one  else,  what  it 
all  meant-- what  the  people  expected  of  him  and  how  much 
he  must  do  to  meet  their  expectations  and  desires. 


THE   FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT.  137 

It  was  no  easy  task  he  had  undertaken,  but  he  accepted 
it  with  an  earnest  determination  ;  and,  on  the  thirtieth  of 
August,  1789,  he  stood  upon  the  balcony  of  Federal  Hall  in 
New  York  (where  the  sub-treasury  building  now  stands,  in 
Wall  Street),  and  took  the  oath  of  office. 
\  He  was  dressed  in  a  dark-brown  suit,  made  of  American 
croth,  with  knee-breeches,  white  silk  stockings  and  silver 
shoe-buckles.  He  wore  a  sword  at  his  side,  and  his  hair 
was  powdered  and  drawn  back  into  a  queue,  as  people  wore 
'it  then.  He  was  a  noble-looking  man,  and  how  proud  of 
him  must  have  been  the  crowd  of  people  that  packed  the 
street,  looking  on. 

He  bent  above  the  open  Bible  and  kissed  it  solemnly  as 
he  took  the  oath  of  office;  the  chancellor,  or  judge,  who  pro 
nounced  the  words  that  Washington  subscribed  to,  stepped 
forward,  and  lifting  his  hand  cried  out  in  a  loud  voice  :  "  Long 
live  George  Washington,  President  of  the  United  States  ! " 
Then  a  flag  shot  up  to  the  cupola  of  the  hall  and  swung  out 
upon  the  breeze ;  cannons  boomed ;  bells  rang ;  the  people 
cheered  and  cheered  and  cheered  ;  and  George  Washington,  the 
farmer's  boy,  the  surveyor,  the  backwoodsman,  the  soldier, 
the  statesman,  the  hero,  was  inaugurated  as  the  first 
American  President. 

All  this  sounds  very  grand,  but  compared  with  the 
United  States  to-day,  it  was  really  a  very  small  country 
and  a  very  fe\v  people,  that  hailed  George  Washington  as 
president.  There  were  not  quite  four  millions  of  people  in 


138 


THE   FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT. 


, 
- 

•      •     .  — ' 


the  United  States  when  Washington  was  inaugurated ;  to 
day  there  are  nearly  seventy  millions.  The  settled  portion 
of  the  country  lay  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  little  or 
nothing  was  known  of  the  vast  western  country  from  which 
so  many  great  states  have  since  been  made.  There  were 
but  few  cities,  and  not  one  of  them  had  more  than  twenty 
thousand  inhabitants.  To-day,  Chicago,  the  site  of  which 
was  not  even  known  in  Washington's  day,  has  a  population  of 
considerable  over  a  million,  and  in  the  city  of  New  York  and 
the  section  round  about  there,  live  to-day  more  people  than, 

in  Washington's  day, 
lived  in  the  whole 
United  States.  There 
were  no  railroads,  nor 
steamboats  ;  there  was 
neither  electricity  nor 
gas,  nor  matches,  nor 
even  oil  lamps,  for 
lighting ;  there  were 


no  water  works ;  there 
were  but  few  bridges, 
and  on  the  farms  there 
were  none  of^he  things 
that  to-day  help  the  farmer,  such  as  mowing-machines,  and 
reapers,  and  threshers,  and  stump-pullers  and  steel  ploughs. 
There  were  only  a  few  newspapers  and  these  were  small 
and  uninteresting;  there  were  but  few  books,  and  the  schools 


FEDERAL    HALL   IN    WALL   STREET. 
(Where  Washington  was  inaugurated.) 


THE   FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT.  141 

were  poor  enough.  So,  taking  it  all  together,  you  will  see 
that  the  boys  and  girls  of  to-day  would  find  themselves  any 
thing  but  happy  if  they  should  be  suddenly  set  down  in  the 
America  of  Washington's  day,  with  all  the  wants  and  none 
of  the  comforts  of  to-day,  and  told  to  make  men  and  women 
of  themselves. 

But  it  was  these  men  and  women,  these  boys  and  girls 
that  Washington  was  elected  to  govern  and  make  a  nation 
of.  He  set  about 'it  at  once.  The  first  thing  he  did  was  to 
select  the  men  with  whom  he  could  talk  and  work  as 
his  advisers.  They  were  to  be  the  heads  of  the  different 
departments  of  the  government — the  State  Department, 
which  looked  after  the  things  that  were  to  be  carried  on 
between  the  United  States  and  other  nations ;  the  Treasury 
Department,  which  looked  after  the  money  matters  of  the 
country;  the  War  Department,  \vhich  looked  after  the  sol 
diers  and  sailors;  and  the  Law  Department,  which  settled 
questions  in  dispute,  and  advised  the  other  departments  what 
to  do  in  such  cases.  Since  Washington's  time  other  depart 
ments  have  been  added  -  -  the  Navy  Department,  the  Post- 
office  Department,  the  Department  of  the  Interior  and  the 
Department  of  Agriculture;  but  when  the  first  American 
president  went  into  office,  there  were  but  four  of  these  depart 
ments,  and  the  heads  or  secretaries  of  these  four  depart 
ments  were  selected  by  Washington,  and  made  by  him  his 
advisers  or  Cabinet,  as  it  is  now  called. 

You  must  not  think  that  because  the  people  hailed  Wash- 


1 42  THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT. 

ington  as  a  hero  and  cheered  him  as  president,  that  every 
body  agreed  upon  the  way  things  were  done  or  ought  to  be 
done.  They  did  not.  There  was  discussion,  and  wrangling, 
and  dispute  and  quarrelling  in  Congress  and  out,  just  as 
there  is  now,  and  just  as  there  has  always  been,  ever  since 
men  began  to  act  for  themselves,  and  tried  to  govern  them 
selves.  This  is  what  makes  what  we  call  political  parties; 
and,  as  there  were  Tories  and  Patriots  in  the  Revolution,  and 
as  there  are  Republicans  and  Democrats  to-day,  so,  when  the 
government  was  first  formed,  there  were  two  parties,  the 
Federalists  and  the  Anti-Federalists  —  those  who  liked  the 
United  States  (or  Federal)  government,  and  believed  in  the 
Constitution,  and  those  who  liked  best  the  old  plan  of  the 
states  governing  themselves  and  did  not  believe  in  the 
Constitution.  Washington  and  Franklin  were  the  greatest 
Federalists,  and  their  following  was  large. 

But  Washington  knew  that  even  those  who  did  not 
believe  as  he  did  might  be  men  of  wisdom,  with  a  right  to 
their  opinions.  He  did  not  think,  as  do  so  many  boys  and 
girls  and  a  great  many  grown  folks  also,  that  the  person  who 
does  not  believe  as  they  do  is  a  stupid  or  dangerous  know- 
nothing.  So,  when  he  made  up  his  advisers  or  Cabinet, 
President  Washington  invited,  among  others,  Hamilton,  the 
most  earnest  of  Federalists,  and  Jefferson,  the  warmest  of 
Anti-Federalists.  He  did  this  because  he  considered  them 
the  best  men  he  could  select  for  the  departments  he  wished 
to  give  into  their  charge;  and  Thomas  Jefferson  was  ap- 


THE    FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT.  143 

pointed  Secretary  of  State,  and  Alexander  Hamilton,  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury-- the  two  most  important  places  in 
the  Cabinet. 

It  is  often  the  little  things  that  bother  people  the  most. 
Now  it  seems  a  small  thing  to  worry  over,  just  how  to  speak 
of  the  president,  and  just  how  he  should  see  the  people.  But 
it  turned  out  to  be  quite  an  important  affair.  You  see  the 
nation  was  new  ;  it  was  made  up  of  people  who  had  been  used 
to  kings  and  royal  governors-- both  those  who  respected 
them  and  those  who  disliked  them.  It  is  a  hard  thing  to 
satisfy  everybody.  Certain  of  the  people  thought  that,  as  the 
head  of  a  nation,  the  President  should  have  some  grand  title 
like  His  Grace,  or  His  High  Mightiness  or,  as  the  Sen 
ate  really  decided,  His  Highness  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  Protector  of  their  Liberties  ;  others  wished  to  have 
no  title  whatever,  for  fear  the  presidents  should  think  them 
selves  too  grand  and  "  give  themselves  airs."  Washington, 
himself,  cared  little  for  titles.  "  A  grand  name  is  of  no  value," 
he  said,  "  if  the  man  who  bears  it  is  not  worthy  or  noble,  or 
one  who  tries  to  so  live  and  act  that  the  title  shall  really  be 
suited  to  him."  "  It  is  best  to  be  a  plain  and  simple  '  Mr.'  if 
one  is  but  a  gentleman,"  he  said.  He  was  therefore  really 
pleased  when  it  was  decided  to  address  him  just  as  the  Con 
stitution  called  him  —  "the  President  of  the  United  States" 
and  "  Mr.  President,"  and  the  title  has  remained  unchanged 
from  Washington's  day  to  this. 

So  many  people  wished  to  see  him  from    curiosity,  on 


144 


THE  FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT. 


business  or  for  their  own  selfish  advantage  that  the  Presi 
dent  had  scarcely  time  to  give  to  his  regular  business  and 
to  his  letters.  In  fact,  all  these  calls  kept  him  from  attend 
ing  to  the  work  he  had  to 
do.  So  he  arranged  for 
certain  reception  days.  On 
Tuesdays,  from  three  to  four, 
he  saw  all  those  who  wished 

to    call    upon    him,    and    on 

I 
every  Friday  afternoon  the 

President  and  Mrs.  Wash 
ington  had  a  reception,  to 
which  the  people  were  all 
invited.  When  this  was 
decided  upon  there  were 
plenty  of  people  to  criticise 
and  to  say  that  Washington 
and  his  wife  were  "  stuck 
up,"  and  were  trying  to  be 
as  grand  as  the  kings  and 
queens  of  Europe;  and  in 
deed,  as  you  will  soon  see, 
as  parties  grew  and  men  took 


IN  WASHINGTON'S  DAY. 


one  side  or  the  other  on 
the  questions  that  were  all  the  time  coming  up  for  dis 
cussion,  there  were  many  who  did  not  hesitate  to  say 
things  against  Washington  which  some  of  them  lived 


THE   FIRST  AMERICAN  PRESIDENT.  145 

Jong  enough  to  be  sorry  for  and  to  wish  they  had  never  said. 
So,  at  last,  the  government  was  started,  with  a  Congress 
and  a  President ;  and  the  world  looked  on  and  sneered  and 
criticised,  or  applauded  and  praised,  according  as  these  who 
sneered  disliked  and  those  who  praised  believed  in  a  people 
trying  to  govern  themselves  without  kings  or  queens,  or 
princes  and  nobles.  For  you  see,  a  republic,  such  as  the 
United  States  had  declared  themselves,  was  an  experiment  / 
in  the  world  and  people  did  not  know  how  the  experiment 
would  turn  out.  It  was  well  for  the  experiment  and  well 
for  the  United  States  of  America  that  the  first  American 
President  was  so  great,  so  noble,  so  dignified,  so  simple,  so 
just,  so  able,  so  sensible  and  so  good  a  man  as  was  George 
Washington  of  Virginia.  It  was  his  wisdom  and  caution 
and  will  that  gave  the  Republic  so  fair  a  start  and  set  it  so 
well  forward  on  the  road  that  nothing  could  stop  its  pro 
gress  or  do  it  lasting  harm  in  all  the  hundred  years  of 
prosperity  and  pride  and  danger  and  disturbance  that 
were  to  follow  the  inauguration  of  its  first  and  noblest 
President. 


"THE  WORLD  SNEERED  OR  APPLAUDED,  CRITICISED  OR  PRAISED." 


146  HOW    WASHINGTON  SERVED    THE   SECOND    2IME. 


CHAPTER   XI. 

HOW    WASHINGTON    SERVED^.AS    PRESIDENT    THE 
SECOND    TIME. 

HPHE  Constitution  says  that  the  term  of  office  of  the 
•*-  President  of  the  United  States  shall  be  four  years. 
But  when  Washington's  first  term  of  four  years,  which 
extended  from  1789  to  1793,  was  finished,  the  people  were 
not  willing  to  give  him  up.  Even  those  who  did  not  agree 
with  him  felt  that  it  was  not  wise,  at  that  time,  to  make  a 
change  and  all  agreed  that  no  man  in  the  land  was  better 

o  o 

fitted  to  be  its  chief  magistrate  than  George  Washington. 

So  he  was  again  elected  to  the  presidency  without  a  vote 
against  him ;  and,  though  he  wished  greatly  to  give  up  the 
office  and  go  back  to  his  beloved  farm  at  Mount  Vernon,  he 
felt  that  the  people  wished  him  to  stay  where  he  was  and 
that,  for  a  time  at  any  rate,  it  was  his  duty  to  remain.  And 
thus,  on  the  fourth  of  March,  1793,  he  entered  upon  the 
office  of  President  of  the  United  States  for  the  second  time. 

Great  things  were  happening  in  the  world,  and  Washing 
ton's  justice,  good  sense  and  patriotism  were  to  be  tried  dur 
ing  his  second  term  as  President  as  they  had  never  before 


r.KOROK    WASHINGTON. 

("  The  Athena  urn  Head."     Painted  from  life  in  1796,  ly  Gilbert  Stiiarl,  and  owned  by  the 
Boston  Athentrum.      Now  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.) 


HOW   WASHINGTON  SERVED    THE   SECOND    TIME.  149 

been  tried  in  all  his  long  and  busy  life.  The  success  of  the 
Americans  in  their  struggle  against  tyranny,  and  the  forma 
tion  of  the  American  Republic  had  set  folks  in  Europe  to 
thinking.  Especially  was  this  the  case  in  France,  where 
the  king  had  been  the  ruling  power  for  hundreds  of  years 
and  the  nobles  had  made  slaves  of  the  people.  Gradually 
the  people  began  to  talk  and  then  to  act,  until  at  last,  in 
1789,  came  that  uprising  of  the  people,  so  like  and  yet  so 
unlike  our  own.  This  was  the  French  Revolution.  The 
people  of  France  got  their  tyrants  by  the  throat ;  they  be 
came  mad  with  success,  and  did  many  terrible  things. 
They  murdered  their  king  and  queen,  the  princes  and 
nobles ;  the  men  and  women  who  had  been  in  power  ran 
away  or,  not  being  able  to  get  off,  staid  behind  and  were  put 
to  death.  Alone  and  unaided  France  fought  all  Europe  - 
fought,  defeated  and,  by  the  aid  of  a  young  soldier  who  was 
not  a  Frenchman  but  a  Corsican,  named  Napoleon  Bona 
parte,  finally  conquered  it --and  then  lost  all  it  had  gained, 
because  Bonaparte  was  not  a  Washington  and  thought  more 
of  himself  than  he  did  of  the  country  that  had  made  him 
Emperor. 

France,  as  you  know,  had  assisted  America  in  her  struggle 
for  independence ;  she  had  helped  to  make  the  United 
States  a  republic.  So,  when  France  tried  to  do  the  same 
thing,  she  naturally  supposed  that  America  would  help  her, 
and  there  were  thousands  of  people  in  America  who  sup 
posed  and  said  the  same  thing.  Especially,  when,  in  1793, 


150  HOW    WASHINGTON  SERVED    THE   SECOND    TJME. 

war  was  declared  against  England,  and  a  Frenchman  named 
Genet  was  sent  to  America  to  fit  out  vessels,  called  priva 
teers,  to  destroy  English  vessels  and  ruin  the  commerce  of 
England,  from  which  its  strength  and  prosperity  came,  did 
the  French  republicans  think  they  could  do  about  as  they 
pleased  in  the  land  which,  so  they  said,  would  not  have  been 
free  had  it  not  been  for  the  French  help. 

Washington  saw  the  danger.  He  was  full  of  friendship 
to  France  for  the  help  she  had  given  America,  though  none 
knew  better  than  did  he  that  France  gave  that  help,  not 
because  she  loved  and  pitied  America,  but  because  she  hated 
England.  "  But,"  he  said,  "  if  we  let  France  come  over  here  to 
fit  out  vessels  and  enlist  men  to  fight  England,  we  ourselves 
shall  soon  get  into  a  war  with  England  and  that  would  be 
the  worst  thing  that  could  happen  to  us  now.  America  is 
weak  and  poor  as  yet  ;  what  she  needs  is  peace,  not  war. 
If  I  let  myself  be  guided  by  these  people  \vho  wish  to  help 
France,  I  shall  get  the  whole  country  into  a  bad  fix.  It  is 
best  for  America  not  to  meddle  in  the  troubles  and  struggles 
between  European  nations  ;  she  has  her  hands  full  in  trying 
to  get  on  here.  Therefore  the  United  States,  in  this  war 
between  France  and  England,  must  be  neutral  --  that  is,  we 
must  help  neither  the  one  nor  the  other.  If  we  do,  it  may 
be  our  ruin/' 

So  he  preserved  what  is  called  "  a  strict  neutrality." 
Genet,  the  Frenchman,  who  had  come  across  for  help, 
threatened  and  blustered  and  scolded  and  said  all  sorts  of 


MARTHA  WASHINGTON. 

(Painted  from  life  in  1796,  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  and  owned  by  the  Boston  Athcnaum. 
Nova  in  ike  Boston  Afu.tfum  of  Fine  Art~.) 


HOW    WASHINGTON  SERVED    THE   SECOND    TIME.  153 

harsh  and  mean  things  against  Washington,  and,  strange  as 
it  may  appear,  so  did  hundreds  of  Americans  who  should 
have  known  better  and  should  have  had  faith  enough  in 
Washington  to  know  that  what  he  did  was  right.  But 
they  did  not,  and,  instead,  they  made  his  life  miserable 
by  insisting  upon  his  doing  things  he  ought  not  and 
would  not  do.  They  called  him  hard  names  and  made  ugly 
pictures  of  him  and  did  and  said  many  things  that  we,  to 
day,  knowing  how  great  and  good  a  man  he  was,  cannot 
understand. 

And,  with  the  French  trouble  came  others  that  needed  all 
Washington's  wisdom  and  firmness  and  courage  to  face  and 
settle.  The  Indians  in  the  Ohio  country,  which,  years  be 
fore,  Washington  had  struggled  over  with  France  for  pos 
session,  begun  to  annoy  and  attack  the  settlers  who  were 
forcing  their  way  into  the  new  lands  to  make  homes  and 
build  towns  therein.  They  would  not  agree  to  the  terms  or 
offers  that  President  Washington  made  them,  but  kept  on 
burning  and  killing  until  soldiers  were  sent  to  punish  them. 
Twice,  the  soldiers  returned  unsuccessful,  and  then  Wash 
ington  collected  a  large  army  and  sent  it  out  under  com 
mand  of  General  St.  Clair,  an  old  Revolutionary  fighter,  to 
conquer  the  Ohio  Indians.  He  gave  General  St.  Clair  all 
the  good  advice  that  so  successful  an  Indian  fighter  as 
Washington  had  been  in  his  young  days  could  give,  and 
especially  he  said  to  him,  remembering  Braddock's  terrible 
defeat,  "  Beware  of  a  surprise."  But  St.  Clair  was  surprised 


'54 


HOW    WASHINGTON  SERVED    THE   SECOND    TIME. 


and,  in  a  defeat  almost  as  bad  as  was  that  of  Braddock's,  his 
army  was  so  whipped  that  nearly  one  half  of  his  soldiers 
were  killed  or  taken  prisoners. 

Washington  felt  dreadfully.  Had  his  directions  been 
followed  the  war  would  have  been  brought  to  an  end.  But 
now  he  had  to  do  it  all  over  again.  This  time  he  sent  a 
brave  soldier  who  had  fought  well  and  successfully  in  the 

Revolution,  General  Anthony 
Wayne.  He  could  not  be  sur 
prised  and  he  soon  whipped  the 
Indians,  made  them  sue  for 
peace  and  got  from  them,  for 
ever,  the  present  great  State 
of  Ohio. 

Then  there  were  troubles 
about  taxes  among  the  settlers 
of  Western  Pennsylvania,  which 
led  to  \vhat  is  known  as  the 

"  Whiskey  Rebellion  ;  "  there  were  worrying  disputes  with 
England  as  to  forts  and  bounderies  in  the  western  coun 
try  and  the  stealing  of  American  sailors  by  English  sea- 
captains  ;  these  were  only  settled  by  sending  an  American 
to  England  to  try  to,  make  things  right,  but  as  this  set 
tlement,  known  as  Jay's  Treaty  (from  Judge  Jay  who  was 
sent  to  England  about  the  matter),  gave  up  some  things  to 
England,  many  of  the  people  who  had  not  yet  got  over  their 
hatred  for  the  "  mother  country,"  as  England  was  called, 


GENERAL    ARTHUR    ST.    CLAIR. 


THE   POST   OFFICE    IN    WASHINGTON'S    DAY. 

(Delivering  the  mail  in  the  Ohio  Country.} 


HOW   WASHINGTON  SERVED    THE   SECOND    TIME.  157 

grumbled  and  talked  about  it  and  found  fault  with  the 
President.  There  were  troubles  in  the  Cabinet  because  the 
members  did  not  all  believe  alike  and  were  continually  disput 
ing  or  seeking  to  get  the  better  of  one  another. 

Through  all  these  troubles,  Washington  moved  straight 
on,  doing  his  duty,  saying  little,  but  acting  at  just  the  right 
moment,  and  so  bringing  the  young  nation  safely  through 
its  years  of  babyhood  and  making  it  ready  for  a  vigorous 
youth  and  a  sturdy  manhood. 

But  all  the  worries  and  anxieties  of  the  time  told  on 
Washington's  strong  nature  and  made  him  determined, 
when  his  time  was  up,  not  to  serve  again  as  President. 

Election  time  came  around  once  more,  but,  though 
implored  to  act  a  third  time  as  President  of  the  United 
States,  and  though  assured  that  those  who  were  against  him 
were  but  a  few,  a  very  few,  as  compared  with  the  whole  peo 
ple,  and  though  it  was  told  him  that  to  put  in  another  man 
as  President  while  the  revolution  in  France  and  the  wars  in 
Europe  were  going  on  would  be  bad  for  America,  Washing 
ton  declared  that  he  could  not  and  would  not  serve  again  ; 
he  said  he  believed  that  the  people  were  united  and  that  a 
new  President,  if  a  wise  choice  were  made,  would  be  able  to 
carry  on  the  government  satisfactorily  and  well.  And  then, 
on  the  seventeenth  of  September,  1796,  he  issued  his  re 
markable  Farewell  Address  to  the  American  People. 

I  wish  you  boys  and  girls  who  read  this  story  of  George 
Washington  would  turn  to  your  histories  and  read  this  won- 


158  HO W    WASHINGTON  SERVED    THE   SECOND    TIME. 

derful  letter  to  the  people  of  the  United  States ;  or,  if  it  is  too 
long,  read  a  part  of  it.  The  Address  was  meant  for  the  peo 
ple  of  that  day,  to  be  sure,  but  it  seems  to  have  been  written, 
just  as  surely,  for  you  and  for  me. 

It  was,  of  course,. his  announcement  to  the  people  that 
he  would  not  serve  again  as  President.  But  it  was  more 
than  this ;  it  was  his  good-bye  to  public  life  after  forty-five 
years  of  noble  service ;  it  was  a  solemn  appeal  to  his  coun 
trymen  to  be  true  to  the  country  they  themselves  had  freed 
and  tHe  nation  they  themselves  had  made;  it  was  a  word  in 
warning,  a  word  in  advice  and  a  word  in  love.  It  implored 
them  to  be  patriotic,  to  be  united,  to  be  brothers,  to  be 
Americans ! 

And  yet,  though  the  loving  and  helpful  words  of  this 
noble  man  were  written  to  his  countrymen  in  affection,  in 
faith,  in  hope,  and  in  the  desire  to  strengthen  and  benefit 
them,  the  Farewell  Address  was  laughed  at  and  criticised 
and  pulled  to  pieces  and  called  all  sorts  of  names  by  some 
of  those  very  Americans  who  needed,  more  than  all  others, 
to  read  and  heed  it.  To-day  their  memories  are  unhonored, 
their  words  are  lost,  their  names  are  forgotten  ;  and,  though 
they  may  have  been  honest  men  and  really  meant  all  the 
mean  and  spiteful  things  they  said,  it  is  for  us  to  remember 
that  the  life  of  a  really  good  man  can  be  made  unhappy  by 
those  who  should  think  before  they  speak,  but  do  not;  and 
that  the  tongue  of  the  slanderer  is  sometimes  as  sharp  and 
hurtful  as  the  dagger  of  the  assassin.  But,  more  than  all 


HO  IV  THE   GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE.  161 

can  we  feel  glad  to  think  that  neither  slander  nor  wicked 
ness  nor  meanness  have  been  able  to  take  away  one  jot 
from  the  name  and  fame  of  George  Washington. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

HOW    THE    GENERAL    GOT    HIS    DISCHARGE. 

A  MID  tears  and  cheers  and  the  warm  good-byes  of  friends 
*•  *•  and  followers,  George  Washington  laid  aside  the  cares 
of  office  and  went  back  to  his  farm  in  Virginia-- that 
Mount  Vernon  farm  toward  which  his  thoughts  and  desires 
had  so  often  turned  through  the  eight  years  of  his  busy  and 
anxious  life  as  president. 

He  found  plenty  to  do.  Mount  Vernon,  in  his  absence, 
had  been  taken  care  of  by  an  overseer,  but  things  had  been 
allowed  to  run  down,  or,  at  least,  not  kept  up  to  Washing 
ton's  idea  of  what  was  right;  so  the  first  thing  he  did  was  to 
repair  and  improve  things.  "  I  find  myself  in  the  situation, 
nearly,  of  a  new  beginner,"  he  wrote  to  one  of  his  friends. 
"  I  am  surrounded  by  joiners,  masons  and  painters ;  and 
such  is  my  anxiety  to  get  out  of  their  hands,  that  I  have 
scarcely  a  room  to  put  a  friend  into  or  to  sit  in  myself,  with 
out  the  music  of  hammers  or  the  smell  of  paint." 


162 


HOU'  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 


So  he  mended  and  repaired  and  built  and  extended,  or 
looked  after  his  broad  plantations,  glad  to  get  back  to  the 

free,  busy,    out- 


of-door  life  he 
had  a 1 w  a  y  s 
loved.  Ilisdoor 
was  ever  open 
to  the  friends 
and  strangers 
who  were  con 
stantly  coming 
to  Mount  Ver- 
non  to  see  the 


greatest  man  in 
America. 

For  he  'was 
the  greatest  man 
in  America.  Of 
that  there  can 
be  no  doubt. 
Notwithstand 
ing  the  enemies 
he  had  made  be 
cause  of  his  say 
ing  to  France  : 
"Hands  off!  America  is  not  your  servant;"  and  notwith 
standing  the  strong  and  different  ways  of  thinking  about 


WASHINGTON,    THE    FARMER. 


HOW  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 


163 


matters  of  government  that  were  dividing  the  people  into 
what  we  call  political  parties  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  harsh 
and  unfriendly  things  that  leading  men  and  leading  news 
papers  had  said  about  the  president,  the  great  mass  of  people 
were  of  his  following  and  on  his  side.  They  could  not  for- 


MOUNT    VERNON    IN    l8oO. 


get  that  this  strong  and  silent  man  had  for  forty-five  years 
been  at  the  front  in  all  the  great  events  that  had  made  the 
United  States  possible  ;  they  knew  his  sincerity,  his  honesty, 
his  faith  in  freedom  and  in  the  people,  his  clear  vision,  his 
strong  grasp,  his  wisdom  in  planning  and  doing,  his  modesty, 
his  ability  as  a  leader,  his  safety  as  a  guide.  For  the  success- 


164 


HOW  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 


fill  soldier  they  cried:  "  Hurrah!    he  is  a  hero;"  for  the  able 
president  they  flun£  their  queer,  three-cornered  hats  in  the 

air  and  shouted:  "Hail  to 
the  chief!"  for  the  big, 
noble-looking,  strong  and 
stalwart  six-footer,  with  the 
calm  and  handsome  face, 
the  well-knit  figure  and  the 
kindly,  courteous  but  awe- 
inspiring  manner  they  felt 
both  reverence  and  affec 
tion,  and,  even  as  they 
cheered  and  shouted  and 
swung  their  hats,  they  would 
say  :  "  See,  there  is  Wash 
ington  !  the  greatest  man 

o  o 

in  the  world." 

So,  even  though  he  was 
worn  out  in  the  people's 
service,  though  he  was  "  get 
ting  on  in  years,"  as  the 
saying  is,  and  longed  only 
for  rest  and  quiet,  the  peo 
ple  could  not  do  without 
him,  and  when  the  time 
came  and  they  called  him  to  the  front  again,  he  came,  as 
reluctant  as  ever,  but  just  as  ready  if  the  need  existed. 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON. 

(Carried  in  -wood  by    William    Rush  ;   thought  to  be 
the  most  life-like  representation  of  Washington. 
Now  in  Independence  Hall,  Philadelphia. ) 


HOW  THE   GENERAL   GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE.  165 

The  need  did  exist  and  the  call  came  speedily.  The 
trouble  with  France  grew  grave.  The  men  who  overthrew 
the  king,  and  started  the  French  republic,  were  not  as  calm, 
as  cautious  or  as  wise  as  those  who  started  the  American 
republic.  They  had  no  Washington  to  lead  them  on.  So, 
as  they  gained  power  by  killing  their  king  and  queen  and 
leading  men  and  women,  they  grew  bloodier  and  more 
tyrannical,  they  became  selfish  and  "  cheeky "  and,  es 
pecially  toward  America,  they  were'  arrogant  and  insulting. 
They  treated  the  United  States  as  if  America  owed  France 
a  debt,  for  which  payment  was  always  to  be  asked.  "  France 
helped  you  in  your  struggle ;  now  you  must  help  France  in 
hers.  Give  us  ships  and  men  ;  let  us  use  your  seaports  to 
fit  out  our  vessels  in;  or,  if  not,  pay  us  so  much  money  and 
we  will  let  you  off." 

Washington  had  not  liked  such  talk,  and  had  said  so. 
When  he  saw  how  cruelly  France  had  treated  her  king,  and 
had  at  last  cut  off  his  head ;  when  he  saw  how  she  had  perse 
cuted  and  almost  killed  Lafayette  and  Rochambeau  and 
other  brave  Frenchmen  who  had  fought  for  American  lib 
erty;  when  he  saw  how  unjust  and  brutal  and  arrogant  and 
overbearing  were  the  men  in  power,  he  said  :  "We  must  not 
yield  to  France.  If  we  do,  it  will  be  bad  for  us  in  every 
way." 

John  Adams,  who  followed  Washington  as  President  of 
the  United  States,  said  the  same  thing.  And  when  the 
French  leaders  demanded  from  the  American  representative 


1 66  HOW  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 

money  to  keep  the  peace,  Pinckney,  the  American  minister 
indignantly  refused,  and  was  driven  out  of  France.  Then  all 
America  was  angry  and  prepared  to  fight.  "  Millions  for 
defence,  but  not  one  cent  for  tribute,"  was  the  cry  on  Ameri 
can  lips.  It  looked  like  a  war  with  France,  and  wrord  was 
sent  to  Washington  at  Mount  Vernon  to  leave  his  farm  once 
more  and  raise  and  lead  the  army  of  the  United  States. 

Much  against  his  will,  but  feeling,  as  he  always  did,  that 
if  the  republic  were  in  danger  he  must  do  whatever  seemed 
to  be  his  duty,  Washington  left  the  o^iet  of  Mount  Vernon 
and  hurried  to  Philadelphia,  which  was  then  the  capital  of  the 
nation.  He  was  appointed  lieutenant-general  and  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  armies  of  the  United  States. 

Here  again,  boys  and  girls,  you  may  see  the  greatness  of 
Washington.  The  greatest  is  not  he  who  commands,  but 
he  who,  while  able  to  command,  is  willing  to  be  commanded. 
Washington  had  held  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the 
people  for  whose  freedom  he  had  fought.  Now,  when  duty 
called,  he  was  ready  to  accept  a  position  below  the  highest. 
Other  men  in  his  position  have,  when  such  an  opportunity 
offered,  seized  the  power  and  used  it  to  their  own  advantage. 
He  acted  always  in  the  spirit  of  the  Master  whom  he  served 
and  tried  to  follow --the  Divine  Leader  who  said  :  "  Whoso 
ever  will  be  great  among  you  shall  be  your  minister,  and 
whosoever  of  you  will  be  the  chiefest  shall  be  servant  of  all ; 
even  as  the  Son  of  Man  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto,  but 
to  minister  and  to  give  His  life  a  ransom  for  many  " 


HO IV  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 


167 


At  Philadelphia,  Washington  was  soon  deep  in  work 
again,  organizing  and  appointing  officers  in  the  new  army 
that  was  being  recruited  for  the  French  war  that  all  men 
thought  would  surely  come.  But  Washington  was  getting 
to  be  an  old  man  —  too  old,  at  least,  for  the  wear  and  tear  of 


•    ; :  ~-.  -•        • 


DRILLING    RECRUITS    FOR   THE    WAR    WITH    FRANCE. 

life  in  the  saddle  and  the  field  as  a  soldier,  and,  in 
accepting  command  of  the  armies  of  his  country,  he  had 
only  asked  one  privilege :  that  he  should  not  be  compelled 
to  serve  in  the  camp  or  the  field  until  it  was  really  necessary 
for  him  to  do  so. 

After  he  had  got  everything  ready,  and  had  appointed 


168  HOW  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 

his  chief  helpers,  and  seen  to  the  comfort  of  the  soldiers  and 
the  new  recruits --he  was  always  great  for  doing  that,  you 
know —  he  went  back  to  Mount  Vernon,  to  attend  to  his  plan 
tation,  and  put  things  in  order  in  case  he  should  be  called 
away  again.  For,  whatever  happened,  Washington  was 
always  ready. 

He  was  ready  now ;  and  all  too  soon  the  call  came.  But 
it  was  a  call  that  few  men  expected,  though  all  men  knew  it 
must  some  day  come.  It  was  the  call  to  the  soldier,  the 
statesman,  the  patriot,  to  come  up  higher.  The  call  came 
as  suddenly,  as  unexpectedly,  as  sharply,  as  ever  on  the  bat 
tlefield  his  orders  to  his  soldiers  had  been  issued  ;  and  he 
met  and  obeyed  it  as  calmly,  as  uncomplainingly  and  as  wil- 
ingly  as  he  had  taught  his  followers  to  obey. 

Washington  was  now  nearly  sixty-eight ;  he  seemed  to  be 
as  well,  as  strong  and  as  vigorous  as  ever ;  he  had  scarcely 
ever  been  ill;  there  was  not  the  least  sign  that  sickness  could 
lay  him  low,  and  he  rode  and  walked  and  looked  after  things 
on  his  farm  and  conducted  the  affairs  of  the  army  as  wisely 
and  as  well  as  ever. 

But  one  cloudy  day  in  December,  1799 — the  twelfth  of 
the  month --just  after  he  had  finished  a  letter  urging  the 
establishment  of  the  school  for  soldiers,  now  known  as  the 
Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  he  mounted  his  horse  and 
rode  away  to  visit  different  points  of  his  big  farm  where 
work  was  being  done.  A  snow  storm  caught  him,  while  he 
was  riding;  it  turned  to  hail  and  then  to  rain  and  the  Gen- 


HOW  THE   GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 


169 


ONE  OF  WASHINGTON'S  RECOMMENDATIONS. 
( The  U.  S.  Military  Academy  at  West  Point,  N.   Y. ) 

eral  came  home  wet  and  chilled.  The  next  day  he  had  a 
sore  throat,  but  rode  out  to  see  about  cutting  down  some  trees; 
and  then  went  home  again.  His  cold  increased  ;  he  had  a 
chill  and  then  a  difficulty  in  breathing.  The  doctors  who 
were  called  could  not  help  him  and  he  grew  worse.  He  had 
what  was  then  called  a  "quinsy  sore  throat"  -a  sort  of 
croup  or  laryngitis,  as  it  is  called  to-day. 


170  HOW  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 

He  called  his  household  around  him  ;  he  said  he  knew  he 
was  going,  but  that  he  was  "  not  afraid  to  go  ;  "  he  thanked  the 
doctors  for  their  efforts,  gave  directions  to  his  beloved  wife 
and  his  faithful  secretary,  and  with  the  words  "  it  is  well  " 
upon  his  lips,  answered  the  call  that  had  come  to  him. 
With  his  fingers  upon  his  own  pulse,  calmly  counting  the 
feebly-coming  strokes,  at  eleven  o'clock  on  Saturday  night, 
the  fourteenth  of  December,  1799,  George  Washington  the 
American  bade  good-bye  to  the  world  he  had  served  so  well 
by  living  in,  the  land  he  had  helped  so  much  by  his  loyalty 
and  his  love.  The  old  General  had  his  discharge. 

When  the  news  went  abroad,  saying  "  Washington  is 
dead,"  friends  and  foes  alike  hastened  to  pay  tribute  to  his 
memory.  The  two  powers  against  \vhich  he  had  stood 
out  most  sturdily-- monarchical  England  and  republican 
France --hastened  to  express  their  sorrow  and  their  respect. 
In  the  midst  of  a  great  pageant  of  rejoicing  because  Napo 
leon  Bonaparte  was  returning  a  victor  from  his  battles  in 
Egypt,  the  standards  and  flags  of  the  French  army,  which 
Americans  thought  Washington  might  have  to  lead  them 
against  in  battle,  were  draped  in  black,  and  "  Bonaparte, 
First  Consul  of  the  Republic"  decreed  a  statue  to  Washing 
ton.  At  almost  the  same  time  the  great  Channel  fleet  of 
England,  riding  at  anchor  in  Tor  Bay  on  the  Devonshire 
coast,  lowered  the  flags  of  every  frigate  and  every  vessel  of 
the  fleet  to  half-mast,  thus  honoring  a  foeman  that  England 
had  faced  in  fight,  but  respected,  honored  and  mourned. 


••'1 


HOW  THE    GENERAL    GOT  HIS  DISCHARGE. 


'73 


And  his  own  land  which  he  had  so  loved  and  labored 
for,  sorrowed  deeply  for  its  loss.  Congress  adjourned  at 
once,  the  Speaker's  chair  was  draped  in  black,  the  Congress 
men  put  on  mourning;  there  were  resolutions  passed,  and 
speeches  made,  and  memorial  services  held  all  over  the  land ; 
and  wherever,  in  cities  or  villages,  on  fishing-boat  and  work 
bench,  in  the  farmhouse,  the  schoolhouse,  and  the  homes  of 
the  wealthy  and  the  poor,  the  sorrowful  tidings  came,  there 
was  mourning  and  sorrow,  there  were  words  of  praise,  of 
reverence  and  love,  for  the  general  called  from  his  army,  the 
planter  from  his  farm,  the  husband  from  his  home,  the 
foremost  citizen  from  the  land  he  had  served  so  nobly  - 
Washington,  "  first  in  war,  first  in  peace  and  first  in  the 
hearts  of  his  countrymen." 


THE   TRIBUTE   OF  THE    NATIONS. 


i74  WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND   GIRLS. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND  GIRLS. 

OOMEHOWor  other,  we  are  always  interested  in  hearing 
^^  about  the  home-life  of  famous  folks -- where  they  live 
and  how  they  live,  how  many  children  they  have,  and  even 
what  they  have  for  breakfast  and  how  they  spend  their  time. 

This  is  perfectly  natural ;  for,  when  we  know  people,  we 
like  to  know  them  well ;  and  when  we  have  become  inter 
ested  in  a  great  man's  story  we  are  glad  to  become 
acquainted  with  the  surroundings  amid  which  that  story 
told  itself.  So  we  like  to  know  how  Longfellow  lived  at 
Craigie  House  and  where  Dickens  loved  to  walk  about  Gads 
Hill.  We  are  interested  in  reading  about  Lincoln's  love  for 
his  boy  Tad,  and  how  Shakspere  used  to  play  with  his  little 
granddaughter,  Lizzie,  and  how  anxious  Columbus  was  that 
his  son  Diego  should  be  rich  and  powerful. 

It  is  not  always  safe  to  gratify  this  desire,  for  sometimes 
the  men  of  whom  we  have  made  heroes,  do  not  bear  close 
inspection,  and  the  men  who  are  great  in  the  world  often 
prove  to  be  very  small  at  home.  But  when  we  come  close 
to  George  Washington,  we  need  have  no  fear  of  being 
ashamed  of  our  hero. 


MRS.  ALEXANDER    HAMILTON 

of  New  York. 


MRS.    Rl'FUS   KING, 

of  Massachusetts. 


MRS.    WILLIAM    BINGHAM, 

of  Pennsylvania. 


MRS.    ROBERT   MORRIS, 
of  Pennsylvania. 


MRS.    THEODORE   SEDGWICK, 

of  Massachusetts. 


MRS.    JAMES    MONROE, 
of  Virginia.. 


MRS.    JAMES    MADISON, 
°f  1'irginia. 


MRS.    CHARLES   CARROLL, 
of  Maryland. 


SOMK   OF   THE    LADIES   OK   WASHINGTON'S   "PRESIDENTIAL   CIRCLE,"    1789-1797. 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND    GIRLS. 


177 


When  we  hear  that  he  had  no  children  of  his  own  we 
feel,  at  first,  that  it  was  a  pity  that  he  had  no  one  to  follow 
him  and  bear  his  name  in  direct  descent  to  the  future.  But 
we  can  console  ourselves  with  two  thoughts  :  sometimes, 
great  men's  children  do  not  always  turn  out  a  credit  to  their 
fathers  —  indeed,  one  writer  has  recorded,  with  satisfaction, 
that  George  Washington  had  no  son  to  disgrace  the  name 


THE  COLLEGE   OF   WILLIAM    AND   MARY,     WILLIAMSBURG,     VIRGINIA. 
(Which  gave  Washington  his  commission  as  surveyor,  and  of  which  he  was  Chancellor) 

he  had  made  so  great  and  glorious  ;  the  second  thought  is 
the  one  that  a  great  American  long  ago  put  into  beautiful 
words :  "  Heaven  left  him  childless  that  his  country  might 
call  him  father ;  "  and  the  "  Father  of  his  Country  "  George 
Washington  has  been  called  to  this  day. 

But  that  home-life  of  Washington  which  we  all  like  to 


i78  WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND    GIRLS. 

know  about,  and  of  which  I  have  now  and  then  given  you  a 
glimpse,  was  really  one  of  the  best  and  most  beautiful  things 
about  this  great  man.  We  know  how  dearly  he  loved  his 
fine  home  at  Mount  Yernon,  and  ho\v,  when  he  was  most 
successful,  as  well  as  when  he  was  most  bothered  and  per 
plexed,  his  thoughts  would  turn  to  his  big  and  fertile  farm 
on  the  banks  of  the  broad  Potomac,  and  how  the  desire  "  to 
live  and  die  a  private  citizen  on  my  own  farm,"  was  ex 
pressed  both  in  his  talk  and  in  his  letters. 

To  that  "  farm,"  after  the  wedding  festivities  were  over, 
he  took  his  wife,  the  fair  young  widow  Custis,  and  here,  with 
their  mother,  came  Washington's  step-children,  John --the 
six-year-old  boy  whom  they  called  "Jacky"  -and  the  little 
four-year-old  girl  Martha,  known  to  the  homestead  as 
"Patty." 

It  was  a  fine  home  for  Jacky  and  Patty  Custis.  Mount 
Vernon,  as  many  of  you  know,  is  a  beautiful  place  to-day;  in 
Washington's  time  it  was  a  splendid  Virginia  plantation, 
with  broad  acres  of  rolling  farm-land,  and  a  lawn  sloping 
down  to  the  sparkling  Potomac,  with  fruit  and  flowers  in 
abundance  and  a  house  that  afforded  plenty  of  play  room 
for  children. 

Colonel  Washington,  the  children's  step-father,  was  then 
a  tall  and  noble-looking  gentleman  of  twenty-seven  ;  their 
mother,  whom  all  the  world  now  reveres  as  "  Martha  Wash 
ington,"  was  a  "  small  and  stately  lady,"  who  looked  after 
her  son  and  daughter  very  closely,  as  was  the  way  \vith 


JOHN   PARKE  CUSTIS   AND  MARTHA   PARKE  CUSTIS  — "  JACKY  "  AND   "PATTY." 
(From  att  original  painting.) 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND   GIRLS.  181 

parents  in  those  days.  The  little  boy  and  girl  studied  their 
lessons  and  did  their  tasks  dutifully  and  well.  Matilda,  or 
Patty,  was,  we  are  told,  a  demure  little  lady  who  wore  her 
hair  "  done  up "  and  adorned  with  "  pompons,"  and  was 
brought  up  by  her  mother  to  work  on  "  samplers  "  and 
study  housekeeping,  and  be  diligent  and  quiet  and  "  correct." 
Jacky,  being  a  boy,  had  a  little  more  freedom ;  but  he,  too, 
had  to  study  hard  ;  his  step-father,  who  as  we  know  was  one 
of  the  best  surveyors  in  America,  taught  him  engineering 
and  military  tactics  and  instilled  into  the  boy  that  deep  love 
of  out-of-door  life  that  was  a  part  of  his  own  nature. 

Washington  was  always  inclined  to  be  more  "  easy  "  with 
his  step-children  than  was  their  mother ;  and,  before  his  real 
duty  of  "  nation-making  "  called  him  from  his  home,  he  was 
with  them  much  at  Mount  Vernon,  and  tried  to  act  toward 
them  as  if  they  were  his  own  son  and  daughter.  Very 
often  he  and  Jacky  went  "  a-hunting,"  and  very  often,  too, 
they  "  catched  a  fox  "  together,  as  Washington  notes  in  his 
diary. 

Both  Jacky  and  Patty  were  delicate  children.  Indeed, 
the  pretty  little  girl  did  not  live  to  grow  up,  but  died  in 
1773,  when  she  was  but  scarcely  seventeen.  A  letter,  yel 
low  with  age,  is  still  in  existence  in  which  her  step-father 
tells  of  his  grief  and  sorrow  over  the  loss  of  "  the  sweet, 
innocent  girl --dear  Patty  Custis."  Jacky,  however,  out 
grew  his  delicate  boyhood  and  lived  to  have  children  of  his 
own.  He  became  his  step-father's  "  aid-de-camp ;  "  and  he  sad- 


182 


WASHINGTON'S   BOYS  AND    GIRLS. 


dened  for  George  Washington  the  glorious  close  of  the  Revo 
lution  ;  for  he  sickened  and  died  at  Yorktown  just  after  the 
surrender  of  Cornwallis.  And  when  he  died,  Washington, 
who  had  watched  over  him  so  carefully  and  loved  him  so 
dearly,  threw  himself,  as  we  are  told,  at  full  length  on  a 
couch  and  wept  like  a  child  over  the  sad  and  sudden  taking 
off  of  his  "  dear  Jacky." 

When  Colonel  "  Jacky "  Custis  died  he  left  a  widow 
and  four  children.  And 
Mount  Vernon  was  so 
lonely  without  the  young 
life  and  gayety  that  Wash 
ington  loved,  that  he  beg 
ged  for  two  of  the  children 
to  bring  up  as  his  own. 
Mrs.  Custis  finally  con 
sented,  and  Washington 
adopted  a  girl  and  a  boy 
-  Eleanor  Parke  Custis, 
two  and  a  half  years  old, 
and  George  Washington 


aged 


six 


Parke     Custis 
months. 

These    children     were 

brought    up    at    beautiful  ELEANOR  PARKE  CUSTIS  <"NELI-'E">- 

Mount  Vernon,  as  their  father  and  his  sister  had  been  before 
them ;  and,  even  to-day,  "  Nellie  Custis  "  —  the  bright,  charm- 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND    GIRLS.  183 

ing,  wilful  and  loving  girl  of  Mount  Vernon --is  an  ever- 
present  memory  as  the  visitor  walks  through  the  rooms  of 
that  historic  house.  She  was  "  the  general's  "  pet  and  pride, 
his  companion  in  ride  and  walk,  his  ardent  admirer  as  he 
was  hers,  and  the  one  who,  by  witty  or  saucy  remark,  could 
set  a-laughing  the  man  who,  his  critics  declared,  was  never 


NELLIE   CUSTISS   ROOM   AT   MOUNT   VERNON. 


known  to  laugh.  Her  room  at  Mount  Vernon  is  still 
shown  to  visitors,  her  "  harpsichord,"  or  old-fashioned  piano, 
for  which  the  general  paid  a  thousand  dollars  and  presented 
to  her,  is  there  too,  and  about  the  old  mansion  linger  many 
traditions  of  the  good  times  "  Miss  Nellie"  and  her  brother 
"  Tut  "  had  when  they  were  the  children  of  Mount  Vernon 
in  the  days  after  the  Revolution.  It  swarmed  with  visitors 
then,  and  was  full  of  life  and  gayety  Its  stables  and  its 


184 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND    GIRLS. 


dog-kennels,  its  garden  and  its  "  preserves  "  were  filled  with 
animals  and  with  the  rare  and  beautiful  things  that  came  as 
gifts  to  Washington  from  his  admirers  all  over  the  world. 

"  Tut,"  as  Nellie's    brother,  George  Washington  Parke 
Custis  was  nicknamed,  was  a  bright  little  fellow  -  -  "  a  clever 

boy "  his  grandmother, 
Mrs.  Washington,  called 
him  —  and  "  the  general  " 
in  his  leisure  hours  looked 
carefully  after  his  bring 
ing  up.  He  was  educated 
at  Princeton  College  and 
at  Annapolis,  and  General 
Washington,  then  Presi 
dent,  wrote  the  boy  many 

NELLIES   PIANO  OR   "  HARPISCORD."  J  J 

at  Mount  Vernon.}  letters    of     advice, 


tion  and  help.  That  they  did  him  good,  we  know ;  for  he 
grew  to  be  a  man  of  gentle  manners  and  fine  tastes,  the 
author  of  "  The  Life  and  Letters  of  Washington  "  and  the 
owner  of  the  beautiful  mansion  now  known  as  Arlington, 
on  the  Potomac,  just  across  from  Washington  City.  It 
was  the  home  of  his  son-in-law,  Robert  E.  Lee,  and  is  now 
the  National  Burying  Ground  of  a  host  of  the  soldiers  who 
fell  in  the  Civil  War.  Both  Nellie  and  Washington  Custis 
lived  to  be  old  people  ;  and,  when  Washington  Custis  died 
in  1857,  m  nmi  passed  away  the  last  male  representative  of 
the  family  of  George  Washington. 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND   GIRLS. 


'85 


So  many  years  of  Washington's  life  were  public  ones, 
passed  in  the  service  of  the  people  as  leader  of  their  armies 
or  as  the  head  of  the  nation,  that  the  home-life  he  loved  so 
much  was  largely  denied  him.  But,  whenever  possible,  he 
had  the  children  with  him.  They  made  a  "  triumphal  pro 
gress  "  to  his  inauguration,  and  during  his  term  as  President 
they  were  frequently  with 
him.  And  when  Nellie  be 
came  the  wife  of  Lawrence 
Lewis,  the  general's  private 
secretary,  she  made  Mount 
Vernon  her  home,  and  was 
there  with  her  new  little 
baby  the  sad  night  that 
Washington  died. 

There  \vere  other  boys 
and  girls,  not  of  the  imme 
diate  Mount  Vernon  house 
hold,  who  were  always 
welcomed  there  and  who 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON    PARKE   CUSTIS. 
(From  an  ivory  miniature.) 


were  dear  to  Washington 
and  his  wife.  If  any  pre 
ference  existed  —  and  with  "the  general"  it  must  be  con 
fessed  that  such  a  preference  did  exist --it  was  in  favor  of 
girls.  Mr.  Moncure  Conway  tells  us  how  he  loved  to  have 
the  little  Custis  girls  with  him  and  adds,  "it  was  so  through 
life.  In  the  most  critical  week  of  his  presidency,  that  in 


i86 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND    GIRLS. 


which  the  British  treaty  was  decided  -  -  the  second  week  of 
August,  1795-- Washington  went  to  the  house  of  Randolph, 
Secretary  of  State,  and  played  with  his  little  daughters." 

He  would  walk  up  and  down  the  great  portico  at  Mount 
Vernon  with  a  little  toddling  girl  holding  his  finger-- that 
great  finger  that  the  baby  hand  could  scarcely  encircle,  and 
many  a  dollar  went  for  toys  and  keepsakes  for  the  children 
and  grandchildren  of  the  various  Custis'  households.  Some 
of  those  very  keepsakes  are  now  preserved  as' heirlooms  by 
the  descendants  of  the  little  folks  to  whom  they  were  given 
so  many  years  ago. 

As  Washington  grew  older  and  more  famous,  young  peo 
ple  had  that  awe  of  him 
that  boys  and  girls  are 
apt  to  feel  for  great  men, 
and  were  not  easy  in 
his  presence.  This  made 
Washington  feel  badly,  for 
he  liked  a  good  time;  he 
liked  to  dance  and  play 
games,  and  he  did  not  like 
to  feel  that  his  presence  put  a  damper  on  sport.  There  is 
a  story  told  that,  at  a  young  people's  party,  when  the  fun  was 
"fast  and  furious,"  President  Washington  came  into  the 
room ;  at  once  the  fun  stopped,  and  every  boy  and  girl 
were  on  their  good  behavior.  Like  dear  old  Colonel  New- 
come  in  Thackeray's  story,  Washington  saw  that  his  pres- 


THE    PORTICO    AT    MOUNT    VERNON. 

(  Where  Washington  played  with  the  children.'] 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AXD    GIRLS. 


189 


ence  was  a  bar  to  the  frolic,  and  after  a  few  pleasant  words 
he  left  the  room,  whereupon  the  young  folks'  dignity  turned 
into  fun  again.  But  Washington  had  felt  badly  to  think 
that  he  could  not  be  in  a  good  time ;  so,  when  the  frolic  was 
again  at  its  height,  he  slipped  quietly  up  to  the  open  door- 


PRESIDENT  WASHINGTON. 


way  and,  unseen  by  the  boys  and  girls,  watched  the  sport  and 
enjoyed  it  immensely.  All  of  which  shows  that  greatness 
has  its  drawbacks,  and  that  fame  is  sometimes  a  fun-spoiler. 
But  the  same  love  of  sport  that  made  Washington  the 
boy  a  leader  among  his  comrades,  lived  with  him  all  through 


190 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND    GIRLS. 


life ;  and,  when  he  was  among  his  girls  and  boys,  even  his 
dignity  would  relax  and  he  would  join  with  them  in  their 
good  times.  We  read  of  his  having  had  "  a  pretty  little 


WASHINGTON   AND  THE   "LITTLE   COCKADE   MAKER. 


frisk"  with  a  houseful  of  young  people.  Indeed,  "  Nellie  " 
Custis  said  of  him  that,  though  "  a  silent,  thoughtful  man, 
the  general  would  unbend  when  there  were  children  in  the 
company;"  and,  she  added,  "I  have  sometimes  made  him 


WASHINGTON'S  BOYS  AND   GIRLS.  191 

laugh  most  heartily  from   sympathy  with  my  joyous  and 
extravagant  sports." 

So  you  see  that  our  hero  had  about  him  much  of  the 
real  man  after  all,  and  was  not  the  "marble  statue"  that  so 
many  would  have  us  think  him.  He  loved  children,  and  the 
boys  and  girls  loved  him.  There  are  many  stories  told  of 
his  interest  in  boys  and  girls  and  his  tender  ways  toward 
them  ;  such,  for  instance,  as  the  story  that  Miss  Seward  tells 
of  Simon  Crosby,  "the  little  cockade  maker,"  who  rode  his 
shaggy  pony  to  Washington's  camp  with  a  load  of  cockades 
and  epaulets-- all  he  could  contribute  toward  the  cause — • 
and  implored  "  the  general "  to  accept  them.  Lafayette 
and  Hamilton,  scarcely  more  than  "big  boys,"  were  his 
closest  friends  in  the  army,  and  the  British,  in  derision, 
called  the  brave  young  French  noble  "the  Boy."  Jacky 
Custis  and  Lawrence  Lewis,  both  boys,  were  very  near 
and  dear  to  him ;  and,  so  strong  was  his  belief  that  upon 
the  boys  and  girls  of  his  day  depended  the  future  success 
or  failure  of  the  nation  he  had  helped  to  found,  that,  in  his 
will,  he  left  money  for  four  different  educational  enterprises ; 
while,  in  his  famous  Farewell  Address,  he  wrote  for  the 
benefit  of  young  Americans,  quite  as  much  as  for  their  fath 
ers  and  mothers,  the  words  of  advice  and  direction  that  his 
countrymen  have  ever  remembered  and,  sometimes,  tried  to 
live  up  to. 


192 


THE   STORY   WI1HOUT  AN  END. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 


THE    STORY    WITHOUT    AN    END. 


N 


THE    GREAT    WHITE    DOME. 


George  Washington's  life, 
does  it  seem  to  you  a  very 
remarkable  one?  If  you 
are  looking  for  something 

O  c3 

exciting,  or  for  something 
full  of  adventure  and  sur 
prises,  you  may,  of  course, 
be  disappointed  ;  for  George 
Washington  was  simply  a  Virginia  gentleman  who  did  his 
duty  and  helped  his  fellowmen. 

He  was  not  perfect;  he  had  his  faults,  as  do  all  of  us. 
He  could  get  very  angry  when  things  went  wrong,  and  could 
say  and  do  things  that  made  men  afraid  to  face  him.  He 
was  not  the  precious  little  prig  that  certain  unfounded  stories 
of  his  boyhood  make  him  appear,  who  could  cut  down 
his  father's  pet  cherry-tree,  and  then  strike  an  attitude  and 
say,  as  if  he  were  speaking  a  piece :  "  Father,  I  cannot  tell  a 
lie,  I  did  it  with  my  little  hatchet."  But  he  never  told  a  lie, 


THE   STORY    WITHOUT  AN  END. 


193 


and  through  all  his  long  life  he  hated  nothing  worse  than 
falsehood.  In  the  heat  of  passion,  as  when  Lee  traitorously 
ordered  a  retreat  at  Monmouth ;  when  he  detected  men  mak 
ing  money  out  of  the  woes  and  worries  of  the  Revolution  ; 
or  when  St.  Clair,  in  the  face  of  his  repeated  charge  to  be 
ware  of  a  surprise  in  fighting  the  Ohio  Indians,  fell  into  the 
trap,  and  was  desperately  defeated,  this  quiet,  calm  and  cool 
man  could  swear  and  rage ;  but  he  detested  an  oath,  and  one 
of  the  first  things  he  did  upon  taking  command  of  the  army 
at  Cambridge  was  to  issue  an  order  requesting  his  sol 
diers  not  to  swear. 
He  has  been  known 
to  cuff  and  strike 
his  soldiers  when 
they  were  cowardly, 
quarrelsome  and 
stupid  ;  but  no  com 
mander  of  armies 
ever  looked  more 
carefully  after  the 
men  under  his  lead, 

was  more  beloved  by  them  or  was  followed  more  willingly. 
I  suppose  we  could  find  faults  and  flaws  in  everyone's 
character,  if  we  set  out  to  hunt  for  them ;  but  that  is  not 
what  we  are  sent  into  the  world  to  do.  We  want  to  find  out 
the  good  points  of  men  and  women,  of  boys  and  girls,  and  if 
the  faults  that  we  see  or  read  of  are  so  many  or  so  big  that 


THE   TOMB    OF   WASHINGTON    AT   MOUNT   VERNON. 


194  THE   STORY   WITHOUT  AN  END. 

we  cannot  help  seeing  them,  then  we  are  to  use  these  very 
faults  as  warnings  for  our  conduct,  to  escape  them,  or  steer 
clear  of  them  if  we  wish  to  be  good  men  and  women  --  even 
if  we  may  not  be  great  ones. 

Now,  what  made  Washington  great  ?  We  admit  that  he 
had  faults ;  but  who  remembers  them  now,  or  tries  to  pick 
them  out?  If  you  recall  the  life  of  Columbus,  the  Admiral, 
which  opened  this  series  of  Children's  Lives  of  Great  Men, 
you  will  recollect  that  he  had  very  great  and  detestable 
faults,  and  was  capable  of  doing  things  that  really  good  men 
like  Washington  and  Lincoln  would  not  have  done  for  all 
the  wealth  of  the  Indies,  nor  all  the  gold  of  Carthay.  And 
yet  Columbus  is  to-day  one  of  the  world's  great  men  ;  his 
faults  are  forgotten  ;  only  what  he  achieved  is  remembered. 

Of  Washington,  we  set  down  this :  as  a  boy  he  was  hon 
est,  upright,  truthful,  obedient  and  brave --liking  out-of-door 
life  and  out-of-door  sports,  and  entering  into  everything  so 
heartily  that  he  soon  became  the  leader  of  his  playmates,  and 
the  one  that  all  other  boys  who  knew  him  looked  up  to  ( "  tied 
to, "  as  the  saying  is),  and  followed;  as  a  young  man,  he  was 
reliable,  adventurous,  courageous,  manly,  pure  and  strong  — 
doing  whatever  task  was  set  for  him  as  well  as  he  could, 
never  grumbling,  and  never  shirking;  as  a  man,  he  was 
what  we  call  a  leader  of  men  —  clear-headed,  clean-hearted, 
seeing  what  ought  to  be  done  and  doing  it,  or  setting 
others  to  do  it  when  he  had  shown  the  way,  never  try 
ing  to  get  the  best  of  others,  never  jealous,  never  disturbed 


GENERAL   GEORGE   WASHINGTON    OF  THE   AMERICAN    ARMY. 

(From  the  fainting  by  John  Fatd,  called"  Washington  at  Trenton") 


THE   STORY    WITHOUT  AN  END.  197 

by  the  jealousies  of  smaller  men,  however  hard  they  tried  to 
upset  his  plans  or  injure  his  reputation,  a  planner  of  great 
things,  and  a  doer  of  them  as  well,  just  the  man  for  just  the 
work  that  the  making  of  a  nation  demanded. 

He  was  not  born  great.  He  grew  into  greatness.  He 
was  not  a  bright  nor  a  brilliant  boy ;  but  if  he  had  anything  to 
do  he  set  about  doing 
it  at  once.  And  as 
he  grew  older  and 
mixed  with  men,  he 
saw  that  what  made 
men  respected  and 
obeyed  by  others  was 
reliability-  -  that  is, 
keeping  one's  prom 
ises,  and  promising 
only  what  one  felt  he 
could  do.  

,-T^T  WASHINGTON'S  HANDWRITING  AS  A  MAN. 

1  here    are    some 

people  who  object  to  what  is  called  "  hero-worship;  "  but  if  a 
man  is  worthy  to  be  called  a  hero,  then  it  is  well  and  wise 
for  men  and  women,  especially  for  boys  and  girls,  to  set  him 
high  in  their  hearts,  to  look  up  to  him,  and  to  call  him  great 
and  grand  and  noble.  Only,  boys  and  girls,  be  careful  how 
you  pick  out  your  hero.  Not  the  conqueror,  who,  like 
Napoleon  Bonaparte,  though  a  mighty  genius,  was,  still, 
simply  brave  and  smart  and  selfish,  who  loved  war  and 


198  THE   STORY   WITHOUT  AN  END: 

power  simply  for  his  own  ends,  and  because  they  brought 
him  what  he  desired  —  not  such  a  man  is  worthy  to  be 
selected  by  you  as  a  real  hero ;  not  the  man  who  is  powerful 
because  he  is  rich,  or  because  he  is  strong,  or  because  he  is 
smart,  alone,  is  to  be  chosen  by  you  as  your  hero ;  but  the 
man  who,  knowing  what  is  right,  dares  to  do  it,  and,  doing 
it,  is  able  to  do  it  nobly  and  well,  the  man  whose  work  is 
not  for  himself,  but  for  the  good  of  others,  who  is  cour 
ageous,  strong  and  honest,  loving,  tender  and  true,  who  can 
command  and  counsel,  but  is  himself  willing  to  obey  and  to 
take  advice,  who  is  a  leader  of  men,  but  a  lover  of  men 
also,  who  is  noble  because  he  is  good,  and  great  because 
he  is  noble --that  is  the  man  you  can  take  for  your  hero, 
and  thank  God  that  such  a  man  really  has  lived  and  labored 
and  succeeded  in  the  world.  And  such  a  man  was  George 
Washington. 

The  people  who,  as  I  have  told  you,  object  to  hero- 
worship  are  ready  to  criticise  Washington.  They  will  tell 
you  that  he  was  not  an  American,  but  only  an  Englishman 
wrho  happened  to  live  in  America  when  America  was  really 
English ;  they  will  tell  you  he  was  cold  and  stern,  and  unlov 
ing  ;  that  he  was  great,  as  a  mountain  or  an  iceberg  is  great, 
but  not  such  a  man  as  boys  and  girls  would  love  if  they 
knew  him,  or  would  care  to  hang  about  or  cling  to,  if  they 
were  with  him  ;  they  will  tell  you  that  he  never  laughed,  that  he 
never  played,  that  he  never  joked  or  did  any  of  the  things 
that  make  men  pleasant  comrades  and  good  fellows. 


THE    STORY    WITHOUT  AN  END. 


199 


To  all  of  which  things  you  can  answer:  "It  is  not  so." 
No  man  was  more  an  American  than  Washington.  He,  first 
of  all,  saw  the  great  future  that  was  in  store  for  the  people 
he  had  made  free,  and  the  nation  he  had  founded.  He  was 
cold  only  to  those  who  tried  to  use  him  for  selfish  ends ; 
stern  only  to  those  who  proved 
themselves  unworthy,  cowardly, 
traitorous  or  disloyal;  unloving  to 
no  one,  not  even  his  enemies.  The 
man  who,  when  a  young  Indian 
fighter,  was  so  moved  by  the  woes 
of  the  people  on  the  frontier  as  to 
say  :  "  I  solemnly  declare  I  could 
offer  myself  a  willing  victim  to  the 
butchering  enemy,  provided  this 
would  contribute  to  the  people's 
ease; "  who  could  love  his  mother,  <£ 
even  like  a  little  child,  when  he  was 
both  general  and  president ;  who,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  a  favorite  with  children  and  especially  to 
little  girls ;  who  could  make  such  young  men  as  Hamilton 
and  Lafayette  cling  to  him  in  affection  and  admiration,  and 
could  kiss  his  officers  good-bye  when  the  war  was  over,  and 
the  day  of  parting  came  -  -  this  was  surely  not  a  cold,  a 
stern  nor  an  unloving  man. 

The  man  who  has  the  care  of  a  nation  on  his  shoulders, 
who  is  naturally  grave,  silent  and  sober,  does  not  go  about 


A    PEN  PORTRAIT  OF    1'KtSlUi.NT 
WASHINGTON. 


THE    STORY    WITHOUT  AN  END. 


poking  fun  at  people,  "  cutting  up,"  or  being  what  is  called 
a  Ce hail  fellow;  "  and  yet  we  know  that  Washington  enjoyed 
a  good  time,  a  hearty  laugh  and  a  pleasant  company. 

But  these  things,  after  all, 
are  not  for  us  to  consider.  As 
the  years  pass,  the  greatness 


of  Washington  grows  on  the 
world.  His  story  is  not  yet  at 
an  end ;  and  it  will  never  end, 
while  men  and  women  honor 
nobility  of  character,  while  boys 
and  girls  love  to  hear  the  story 
of  how  a  farmer's  boy  grew 
into  a  hero,  and  a  simple  gen 
tleman  into  a  great  man.  His 
story  will  never  end,  for  the 
world  will  never  cease  to  love, 
to  honor  and  to  reverence  the 
name  of  George  Washington. 

o  o 

And  how  his  country  has 
honored  him  !  It  holds  him  as, 
above  all  others,  its  mightiest 
man.  The  capital  of  the  nation 
bears  his  name,  and  is  built,  a 
beautiful  city,  upon  the  spot 
he  selected,  while,  above  its  splendid  streets  and  its  magnifi 
cent  buildings  and  its  glorious  white  dome,  towers  the  mighty 


THE   WASHINGTON    MONUMENT. 
(In  the  City  of  Washington.} 


THE   STORY    WITHOUT  AN  END. 


203 


shaft  that  has  been  reared  as  his  monument  and  memorial. 
The  home  he  loved  so  dearly  at  Mount  Vernon  is  the  most 
sacred  spot  in  all  the  land,  sought  by  pilgrims  from  all  over 
the  world,  as  one,  in  foreign  lands,  visits  the  shrines  of  saintly 
men.  On  the  far  Pacific  coast  a  great  and  growing  state 
bears  his  name,  and,  all  over  the  land,  towns  and  counties, 
streets  and  parks,  schools  and  institutions  and  banks  and  all 
the  things  that  people  most  prize  and  most  work  for,  honor 
the  memory  of  Washington  by  bearing  his  name. 

And  how  grandly  has  the  country 
which  he  helped  to  form  and  which  he 
led  to  victory  and  a  future,  made  his 
predictions  come  true  !  Its  four  millions 
of  people  who  hailed  him  as  president 
have  grown  to  nearly  seventy  millions, 
its  thirteen  states  to  forty-five,  its  four 
cities  to  more  than  four  hundred,  any  one 
of  which  is  more  populous  than  the  most  populous  city  of 
Washington's  day.  The  American  leads  the  world  in  enter 
prise,  energy,  invention,  prosperity  and  patriotism  ;  and,  under 
the  folds  of  the  banner  of  the  stars  and  stripes,  schools  and 
churches  flourish  as  in  no  other  land,  homes  are  happier,  men 
and  women  freer,  boys  and  girls  better,  and  the  future  more 
certain  and  more  secure  than  in  any  other  land  upon  the 
whole  round  earth. 

And  all  this  is  because  George  Washington  lived  a  hun 
dred  years  ago ;  and  that  is  why  his  story,  as  I  have  assured 


THE    SEAL   OF   THE    STATE    OF 
WASHINGTON. 


204 


THE   STORY   WITHOUT  AN  END. 


you,  was  not  yet  come  to  an  end.  It  never  will  end,  while 
the  world  stands,  and  fathers  and  mothers  teach  their  boys 
and  girls  to  reverence  worth  and  greatness,  truth  and  honor, 
nobility  and  goodness,  strength  and  purpose,  grandeur  and 
success  —  all  of  which  are  chapters  in  the  ever-living  story 
of  George  Washington,  the  noblest  American. 


4J 


DEC 


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